four o'clock
From the day when Dorris Kincaid had come over with the gray glass vase and her repeated thanks , when the flowers had done their ministry and faded , there had been little simple courtesies , each way , between the opposite houses ; and once Kenneth and his sister had taken tea with the Ripwinkleys , and they had played `` crambo '' and `` consequences '' in the evening . The real little game of `` consequences , '' of which this present friendliness was a link , was going on all the time , though they did not stop to read the lines as they folded them down , and `` what the world said '' was not one of the items in their scheme of it at all . It would have been something worth while to have followed Hazel as she went her rounds , asking quietly at each house to see Mrs. This or That , `` as she had a message ; '' and being shown , like a little representative of an almost extinct period , up into the parlor , or the dressing-room of each lady , and giving her quaint errand . `` I am Hazel Ripwinkley , '' she would say , `` and my mother sends her compliments , and would like to have Lilian , '' -- or whoever else , -- `` come at four o'clock to-day , and spend the afternoon and take tea . I 'm to have a little party such as she used to have , and nobody is to be much dressed up , and we are only to play games . '' `` Why , that is charming ! '' cried Mrs. Ashburne ; for the feeling of her own sweet early days , and the old B -- Square house , came over her as she heard the words .