five o'clock in the afternoon
Mrs. Barton laughed merrily , and Alice began to understand that her mother was approving her flirtation . That is the name that her mother would give her talk with Mr. Harding . During the Dublin Season it is found convenient to give teas : the young ladies have to be introduced to the men they will meet after at the Castle . These gatherings take place at five o'clock in the afternoon ; and as Mrs. Barton started from the Shelbourne Hotel for Lady Georgina Stapleton 's , she fell to thinking that a woman is never really vulnerable until she is bringing out her daughters . Till then the usual shafts directed against her virtue fall harmlessly on either side , but now they glance from the marriage buckler and strike the daughter in full heart . In the ball-room , as in the forest , the female is most easily assailed when guarding her young , and nowhere in the whole animal kingdom is this fact so well exemplified as in Dublin Castle . Lady Georgina lived in Harcourt Street , and it was on her way thither that something like a regret rose up in Mrs. Barton that she had -LRB- she was forced to confess it -RRB- aroused the enmity of women , and persistently .