two o'clock
`` Sure they 're the only best we have , '' continued Mary Ann Whooly , pooling , as it were , her wardrobe with that of the lodger . `` God 's will must be , Miss Muriel , my darlin ' gerr ` l ! '' It says a good deal for the skill of Nora as a tire-woman that her sister 's appearance ten minutes afterwards was open to no reproach , save possibly that of eccentricity , and the Inspector 's gaze -- which struck the tire-woman as being of a singularly enamoured character for so brief an acquaintance -- was so firmly fixed upon her sister 's countenance that nothing else seemed to signify . It was by this time past two o'clock , and the repast , which arrived in successive relays , had , at all events , the merit of | | combining the leading features of breakfast , lunch and afternoon tea in one remarkable procession , Julia Connolly , having inaugurated the entertainment with tumblers of dark brown steaming whisky and water , was impelled from strength to strength by her growing sense of the greatness of the occasion , and it would be hard to say whether the younger Miss Purcell was more gratified by the mound of feather-light pancakes which followed on the tea and buttered toast , or by the almost cringing politeness of her elder sister . `` How civil she is ! '' thought Nora scornfully ; `` for all she 's so civil she 'll have to lend me her saddle next week , or I 'll tell them the whole story ! '' -LRB- Them meant the sisterhood . -RRB-