two o'clock in the afternoon
Do n't you feel you _ must _ ? Elizabeth , pull yourself together and _ go _ '' Strange effect of a grey sky and a cool wind ! For I protest that if it had been warm and sunny my conscience would not have bothered about me at all . We had a short fight over it , in which I got all the knocks , as was evident by the immediate swelling of the bump alluded to above , and then I gave in , and by two o'clock in the afternoon was lifting the latch of the first door and asking the woman who lived behind it what she had given the family for dinner . This , I was instructed on my first round by the Frau Inspector , is the proper thing to ask ; and if you can follow it up by an examination of the contents of the saucepan , and a gentle sniff indicative of your appreciation of their savouriness , so much the better . I was diffident at first about this , but the gratification on their faces at the interest displayed is so unmistakable that I never now omit going through the whole business . This woman , the wife of one of the men who clean and feed the cows , has arrived at that enviable stage of existence when her children have all been confirmed and can go out to work , leaving her to spend her days in her clean and empty room in comparative dignity and peace .