About three o'clock
`` Indeed we shall do so , '' said Ralph , and as his sister relinquished the hand of the visitor he took it himself . Miss Panney was not one of those drivers who start off with a jerk . Had she been such a one , Miss Bannister might have been pulled against the side of the phaeton , for the grasp was cordial . About three o'clock that afternoon , La Fleur , Mrs. Tolbridge 's cook , sat in the middle of her very pleasant kitchen , composing the dinner . Had she been the chef of a princely mansion , she could not have given the subject more earnest nor intelligent consideration . It is true the materials at hand were not those from which a dinner for princes would have been prepared . But what she had was sufficient for the occasion , and this repast for a country gentleman in moderate circumstances and his wife was planned with conscientiousness as well as skill .