five o'clock on Sunday
He might have struck her as expert for contingencies in the very degree of her having in Venice struck _ him _ as expert . He smiled over his plea for a renewal with stages and steps , a thing shaded , as they might say , and graduated ; though -- finely as she must respond -- she met the smile but as she had met his entrance five minutes before . Her soft gravity at that moment -- which was yet not solemnity , but the look of a consciousness charged with life to the brim and wishing not to overflow -- had not qualified her welcome ; what had done this being much more the presence in the room , for a couple of minutes , of the footman who had introduced him and who had been interrupted in preparing the tea-table . Mrs. Lowder 's reply to Densher 's note had been to appoint the tea-hour , five o'clock on Sunday , for his seeing them . Kate had thereafter wired him , without a signature , `` Come on Sunday _ before _ tea -- about a quarter of an hour , which will help us '' ; and he had arrived therefore scrupulously at twenty minutes to five . Kate was alone in the room and had n't delayed to tell him that Aunt Maud , as she had happily gathered , was to be , for the interval -- not long but precious -- engaged with an old servant , retired and pensioned , who had been paying her a visit and who was within the hour to depart again for the suburbs . They were to have the scrap of time , after the withdrawal of the footman , to themselves , and there was a moment when , in spite of their wonderful system , in spite of the proscription of rushes and the propriety of shades , it proclaimed itself indeed precious .