five o'clock
Mrs Norton saw in marriage nothing but the child , and in the child nothing but an heir -- that is to say , a male who would continue the name and traditions of Thornby Place . This would seem to indicate a material nature , but such a misapprehension arises from the common habit of confusing pure thought -- thought which proceeds direct from the brain and lives uncoloured by the material wants of life -- with instincts whose complexity often causes them to appear as mental potentialities , whereas they are but instincts , inherited promptings , and aversions more or less modified by physical constitution and the material forces of the life in which the constitution has grown up ; and yet , though pure thought , that is to say the power of detaching oneself from the webs of life and viewing men and things from a height , is the rarest of gifts , many are possessed of sufficient intellectuality to enjoy with the brain apart from the senses . Mrs Norton was such an one . After five o'clock tea she would ask Kitty to read to her , and drawing her shawl about her shoulders , would readily abandon the intellectual side of her nature to the seductive charm of the romantic story of James of Scotland ; and while to the girl the heroism and chivalry were a little clouded by the quaint turns of Rossetti 's verse , to the woman these were added delights , which her quiet penetrating understanding followed and took instant note of . `` Were mother and son ever so different ? '' was the common remark . The artistic was the side of Mrs Norton 's character that was unaffectedly kept out of sight , just as young John Norton was careful to hide from public knowledge his strict business habits , and to expose , perhaps a little ostentatiously , the spiritual impulses in which he was so deeply concerned : the subtle refinement of sacred places , from the mystery of the great window with its mitres and croziers to the sunlit path between the tombs where the children play , the curious and yet natural charm that attendance in the sacristy had for him , the arrangement of the large oak presses , wherein are stored the fine altar linen and the chalices , the distributing of the wine and water that were not for bodily need , and the wearing of the flowing surplices , the murmuring of the Latin responses that helped so wonderfully to enforce the impression of beautiful and refined life which was his , and which he lived beyond the gross influences of the wholly temporal life which he knew was raging almost but not quite out of hearing .