about nine o’clock at night
Her mother was the last person she wished to resemble , much though she admired her . Her common sense would assert itself almost brutally , and Mrs. Hilbery , looking at her with her odd sidelong glance , that was half malicious and half tender , would liken her to `` your wicked old Uncle Judge Peter , who used to be heard delivering sentence of death in the bathroom . Thank Heaven , Katharine , I 've not a drop of HIM in me ! '' At about nine o'clock at night , on every alternate Wednesday , Miss Mary Datchet made the same resolve , that she would never again lend her rooms for any purposes whatsoever . Being , as they were , rather large and conveniently situated in a street mostly dedicated to offices off the Strand , people who wished to meet , either for purposes of enjoyment , or to discuss art , or to reform the State , had a way of suggesting that Mary had better be asked to lend them her rooms . She always met the request with the same frown of well-simulated annoyance , which presently dissolved in a kind of half-humorous , half-surly shrug , as of a large dog tormented by children who shakes his ears . She would lend her room , but only on condition that all the arrangements were made by her .