ten o'clock
From the patent inner columns of the `` Carlow County Herald '' might be gleaned the information -LRB- enlivened by cuts of duchesses -RRB- that the London season had reached a high point of gaiety ; and that , although the weather had grown inauspiciously warm , there was sufficient gossip for the thoughtful . To the rapt mind of Miss Selina Tibbs came a delicious moment of comparison : precisely the same conditions prevailed in Plattville . Not unduly might Miss Selina lay this flattering unction to her soul , and well might the `` Herald '' declare that `` Carlow events were crowding thick and fast . '' The congressional representative of the district was to deliver a lecture at the court-house ; a circus was approaching the county-seat , and its glories would be exhibited `` rain or shine '' ; the court had cleared up the docket by sitting to unseemly hours of the night , even until ten o'clock -- one farmer witness had fallen asleep while deposing that he `` had knowed this man Hender some eighteen year '' -- and , as excitements come indeed when they do come , and it seldom rains but it pours , the identical afternoon of the lecture a strange lady descended from the Rouen Accommodation and was greeted on the platform by the wealthiest citizen of the county . Judge Briscoe , and his daughter , Minnie , and -LRB- what stirred wonder to an itch almost beyond endurance -RRB- Mr. Fisbee ! and they then drove through town on the way to the Briscoe mansion , all four , apparently , in a fluster of pleasure and exhilaration , the strange lady engaged in earnest conversation with Mr. Fisbee on the back seat . Judd Bennett had had the best stare at her , but , as he immediately fell into a dreamy and absent state , little satisfaction could be got from him , merely an exasperating statement that the stranger seemed to have a kind of new look to her .