ten minutes past six
The College Settlement Association , by way of parenthesis , was in the habit of distributing three hundred dolls among the students every year before Christmas , to be dressed and sent to the settlement in New York . The dolls were supposed to be so well dressed that the East Side mothers could use them as models for the clothing of their own children , though it must be confessed that the tendency among the girls was to strive for effect and not for detail . On the evening before the dolls were to be shipped a doll show was regularly held , at which two cents admittance was charged -LRB- stamps accepted -RRB- to pay the expressage . * * * * * IT was ten minutes past six , and Phillips Hall -LRB- such of it as was not late -RRB- was dining , when the maid arrived with Mr. Algernon Vivian Todhunter 's card . Patty , radiant in a white evening gown , was trying , with much squirming , to fasten it in the middle of the back . `` Oh , Sadie , '' she called to the maid , `` would you mind coming in here and buttoning my dress ? I ca n't reach it from above or below . ''