four in the afternoon
Perhaps it may be a long while before she will so readily count it in . It had turned out a hot day ; one of those days in the nineties , when if you once hear from the thermometer , or in any way have the fact forcibly brought home to you , you relinquish all idea of exertion yourself , and look upon the world outside as one great pause , out of which no movement can possibly come , unless there first come the beneficence of an east wind , which the dwellers on Massachusetts Bay have always for a reserve of hope . Yet it may quite well occur to here and there an individual with a resolute purpose in the day , to actually live through it and pursue the intended plan , without realizing the extra degrees of Fahrenheit at all , and to learn with surprise at set of sun when the deeds are done , of the excelsior performances of the mercury . With what secret amazement and dismay is one 's valor recognized , however , when it has led one to render one 's self at four in the afternoon on such a day , near one 's friend who _ has _ been vividly conscious of the torrid atmosphere ! Did you ever make or receive such an afternoon call ? Mrs. Argenter , comfortable in her thin wrapper , reading her thin romance , did not trouble herself to be astonished . `` They were young people ; young people could do anything , '' she dimly thought ; and putting the white polonaise into the structure of the House that Jack built , she interrupted herself no farther than presently to ring her bell again , and tell the maid on no account to admit any one to see herself , and to be sure that there were plenty of raspberries brought in for tea .