eleven o'clock in the morning
It was the kind of room in which it would seem that no scheme could miscarry and every wish must prevail ; the objective physical world grouped itself so obediently to the human will that it was almost impossible to imagine a state of things in which it did not so . The great house was admirably ordered ; there was no sound that there should not be -- no hitches , no gaps or cracks anywhere ; it moved like a well-oiled machine ; the gong , sounded in the great hall , issued invitations rather than commands . All was leisurely , perfectly adapted and irreproachable . * * * * * It is always more difficult for people who live in such houses as these to behave well under adverse fortune than for those who live in houses where the Irish stew can be smelled at eleven o'clock in the morning , and where the doors do not shut properly , and the kitchen range goes wrong . Possibly something of this fact helped to explain the owner 's extreme violence of temper on the occasion of his son 's revolt . It was intolerable for a man all of whose other surroundings moved like clockwork , obedient to his whims , to be disobeyed flatly by one whose obedience should be his first duty -- to find disorder and rebellion in the very mainspring of the whole machine . Possibly , too , the little scheme that was maturing in Lord Talgarth 's mind between tea and dinner that evening helped to restore his geniality ; for , as soon as the thought was conceived , it became obvious that it could be carried through with success .