eight
o'clock
The more genteel and the richer you are , the later you eat your meals . Most of the well-to-do merchants eat dinner at six . Men that have got above earning their own living dine later yet , and some have got so disgustingly genteel and rich , that I do n't suppose they dine till next day . Cousin Dempster attends to business yet , so he settled down on eight o'clock for his dinner , and a splendid affair it was . When Cousin E. E. and I came rustling downstairs with a cataract of silk rolling after us , I just screamed right out . The sight of that table was so exhilarating , glass a-shining -- silver dishes and things a-sparkling -- flowers heaped up in flower-pots and twisted in wreaths around the glass globe overhead , which flashed , and sparkled , and glittered as if it had been frozen up with ten thousand icicles that flung back all the light without melting a drop . The silk curtains were all let down .