one o'clock
A prodigal driven by the lust of speed , dissipating his divine energies in this fierce whirling of the wheels ; scattering his youth to the sun and his strength to the wind in the fury of riotous `` biking . '' A drunkard , mad-drunk , blind-drunk with the draught of his onrush . That was Ranny on a Sunday morning . * * * * * He returned , at one o'clock , to a dinner of roast mutton and apple tart . Conversation was sustained , for Mercier 's benefit , at the extreme pitch of politeness and precision . It seemed to Ranny that at Sunday dinner his father reached , socially , a very high level . It seemed so to Mrs. Ransome as she bloomed and flushed in a brief return of her beauty above the mutton and the tart .