six o'clock
`` Very likely , '' said Linda quietly . `` Katy , can you spare a few minutes ? '' `` No , lambie , I jist ca n't , '' said Katy , `` because a young person that 's the apple of me eye is havin ' a birthday the day and I have got me custard cake in the oven and the custard is in the makin ' , and after Miss Eileen went and I did n't see no chance for nothin ' special , I jist happened to look out , one of the ways ye do things unbeknownst to yourself , and there stood Mr. Pater Morrison moonin ' over the ` graveyard , ' like he called it , and it was lookin ' like seein ' graves he was , and I jist took the bull by the horns , and I sings out to him and I says : ` Mr. Pater Morrison , it 's a good friend ye were to the young missus when ye engineered her skylight and her beautiful fireplace , and this bein ' her birthday , I 'm takin ' the liberty to ask ye to come to dinner and help me celebrate . ' And he said he would run up to the garage and get into his raygimentals , whatever them might be , and he would be here at six o'clock . So ye got a guest for dinner , and if the custard 's scorched and the cake 's flat , it 's up to ye for kapin ' me here to tell ye all this . '' Then Katy hurried to the kitchen . Linda looked at John Gilman and smiled .