nine o'clock
She could have got a blue ribbon on a yellow dog any time . Of course , in defence of her exotic Airdale , she unblinkingly fell back on the paraphrase : `` It 's a wise father that knows his own son '' ; or the other way round , just as you please . Mrs. Rowe-Martin professedly was middle-aged -- that is to say , just rounding fifty . As a woman is always fifty until she is sixty , just as it is nine o'clock until the stroke of ten , there may be some question as to which end of the middle-aged period she was rounding , but as that is n't material to the development of this story , we will give her the benefit of the doubt and merely say that sensibly she dressed in black . She was Mrs. Wrandall 's closest friend and confidante . It was Mrs. Rowe-Martin who rushed over and gave the smelling salts to Mrs. Wrandall when that excellent lady collapsed on hearing that her son Challis was going to marry the daughter of old Sebastian Gooch . It was she who acted as spokeswoman for the distressed mother and told the world -- that is to say , THEIR world -- that Sara was a scheming , designing creature , whose sole aim in life was to get into the smart set by the easiest way .