about five in the afternoon
This event also created a chasm in our little society , which Mrs. Cole , on the foot of her usual caution , was in no haste to fill up ; but then it redoubled her attention to procure me , in the advantages of a traffic for a counterfeit maidenhead , some consolation for the sort of widowhood I had been left in ; and this was a scheme she had never lost prospect of , and only waited for a proper person to bring it to bear with . But I was , it seems , fated to be my own caterer in this , as I had been in my first trial of the market . I had now passed near a month in the enjoyment of all the pleasures of familiarity and society with my companions , whose particular favourites -LRB- the baronet excepted , who soon after took Harriet home -RRB- had all , on the terms of community established in the house , solicited the gratification of their taste for variety in my embraces ; but I had with the utmost art and address , on various pretexts , eluded their pursuit , without giving them cause to complain ; and this reserve I used neither out of dislike of them , nor disgust of the thing , but my true reason was my attachment to my own , and my tenderness of invading the choice of my companions , who outwardly exempt , as they seemed , from jealousy , could not but in secret like me the better for the regard I had for , without making a merit of it to them . Thus easy , and beloved by the whole family , did I get on ; when one day , that , about five in the afternoon , I stepped over to a fruit shop in Covent Garden , to pick some table fruit for myself and the young women , I met with the following adventure . Whilst I was chaffering for the fruit I wanted , I observed myself followed by a young gentleman , whose rich dress first attracted my notice ; for the rest , he had nothing remarkable in his person , except that he was pale , thin-made , and ventured himself upon legs rather of the slenderest . Easy was it to perceive , without seeming to perceive it , that it was me he wanted to be at ; and keeping his eyes fixed on me , till he came to the same basket that I stood at , and cheapening , or rather giving the first price asked for the fruit , began his approaches . Now most certainly I was not at all out of figure to pass for a modest girl .