three o'clock in the afternoon
She had a soup which resembled greatly a flour paste , and that was in its covered tureen on the range-shelf , keeping hot and growing thicker . She had cooked a cheap cut of beef from a recipe in the cook-book , and that was drying up by the side of the soup . Poor Charlotte had no procrastination , but rather the failing of `` Haste makes waste '' of the old proverb . She had her cheap cut of beef all cooked at three o'clock in the afternoon , and also the potatoes , and the accompanying turnips . Salad at that time of the year she could not encompass in any form , but she had a singular and shrunken pudding on the range-shelf beside the other things . She set the coffee-pot well back where it would only boil gently , and the table was really beautifully laid . The child 's cheeks were feverishly flushed with the haste she had made and her pride in her achievements .