noon
In the morning the farmer above Lee rolled the milk down the road , past his window , on a carrier , and the milk cans made a sudden rattle and ringing . Then Christopher washed the porches . Fanny , no matter how late she had been up the night before , was dressed by eight o'clock , and put fresh flowers in the vase . He hazarded the guess that Mrs. Grove was often in bed until past noon ; here servants renewed the great hot-house roses with long stems , the elaborate flowers on the dining-table . In the morning , as he had foreseen , the percolator was connected , cream and sugar placed beside it ; and before his shaving was over , he had a cup of coffee with a cigarette casting up its fragrant smoke from the saucer . His shoes might have been lacquered from the heighth of the lustre rubbed into them ; a voice the perfection of trained sympathetic concern inquired for the exacted details of the suspended preparation of his eggs . * * * * * His dinner engagement with Mina Raff , arranged through her secretary , was for fifteen minutes past seven ; and , meanwhile , as Mrs. Grove had offered , Adamson drove Lee down-town .