four to six in the afternoon
This request would be surrounded and enveloped in so many words , and often inserted amidst so many odd reasons and excuses , that Mr. Horner -LRB- the steward -RRB- would sometimes say it was like hunting through a bushel of chaff to find a grain of wheat . Now , in the second column of this book , the grain of meaning was placed , clean and dry , before her ladyship every morning . She sometimes would ask to see the original letter ; sometimes she simply answered the request by a `` Yes , '' or a `` No ; '' and often she would send for lenses and papers , and examine them well , with Mr. Horner at her elbow , to see if such petitions , as to be allowed to plough up pasture fields , were provided for in the terms of the original agreement . On every Thursday she made herself at liberty to see her tenants , from four to six in the afternoon . Mornings would have suited my lady better , as far as convenience went , and I believe the old custom had been to have these levees -LRB- as her ladyship used to call them -RRB- held before twelve . But , as she said to Mr. Horner , when he urged returning to the former hours , it spoilt a whole day for a farmer , if he had to dress himself in his best and leave his work in the forenoon -LRB- and my lady liked to see her tenants come in their Sunday clothes ; she would not say a word , maybe , but she would take her spectacles slowly out , and put them on with silent gravity , and look at a dirty or raggedly-dressed man so solemnly and earnestly , that his nerves must have been pretty strong if he did not wince , and resolve that , however poor he might be , soap and water , and needle and thread , should be used before he again appeared in her ladyship 's anteroom -RRB- . The out - lying tenants had always a supper provided for them in the servants ' - hall on Thursdays , to which , indeed all comers were welcome to sit down .