ten o'clock
So we plodded on quite sociably towards the Hall , and my friend took leave of me at the farm with a polite bow and a sort of hesitating manner that most shy men possess , and which would lead one to infer they have always got something more to say that never is said . I knew I should be well scolded if I avowed my accident to any of the family ; besides , I did not quite fancy facing all the inquiries as to how I got home , and Cousin Amelia 's sneers about errant damsels and wandering knights ; so I stole quietly up to my room , bathed my foot in eau-de-Cologne , and remained _ perdue _ till dinner-time , in despite of repeated messages from my aunts and the arrival of Cousin John . People may talk about country pleasures and country duties and all the charms of country life ; but it appears to me that a good many things are done under the titles of pleasure and duty which belong in reality to neither ; and that those who live entirely in the country inflict on themselves a great variety of unnecessary disagreeables , as they lose a great many of its chief delights . Of all receipts for weariness commend me to a dinner-party of country neighbours by _ daylight _ -- people who know each other just well enough to have opposite interests and secret jealousies -- who arrive ill at ease in their smart dresses , to sit through a protracted meal with hot servants and forced conversation , till one young lady on her promotion being victimized at the pianoforte enables them to yawn unobserved ; and welcome ten o'clock brings round the carriage and tipsy coachman , in order that they may enter on their long , dark , dreary drive home through lanes and by-ways , which is only endurable from the consideration that the annual ordeal has been accomplished , and that they need not do it again till this time next year . There was a dinner-party at Dangerfield regularly once a month , and this was the day . Aunt Horsingham was great on these occasions , astonishing the neighbours as much with her London dresses as did Cousin Amelia with her London manners . We all assembled a few minutes earlier than usual in the drawing-room , so as to be ready to receive our guests , and great was the infliction on poor Aunt Deborah and my humble self .