three o'clock in the afternoon
She had undertaken Max also at first , but given him up as beyond her control ; and now , though continuing to attend school in the town , he boarded with the Rev. Thomas Fox , who lived upon its outskirts . Mrs. Scrimp was a woman of economies , keeping vigilant watch over all expenditures , great and small , and employing one servant only , who was cook , housemaid , and laundress all in one , and expected to give every moment of her time to the service of her mistress , and be content with smaller wages than many who did less work . Mrs. Scrimp was a woman of theories also , and her pet one accorded well with the aforementioned characteristic . It was that two meals a day were sufficient for any one , and that none but the very vigorous and hard-working ought to eat anything between three o'clock in the afternoon and breakfast-time the next morning . That was a rule to which neither Max nor Lulu could ever be made to submit ; but Grace , the youngest , a delicate , fragile child , with little force of will , had no strength or power to resist , so fell a victim to the theory ; each night went supperless to bed , and each day found herself too feeble and languid to take part in the active sports in which her stronger sister delighted . It is quite possible that Mrs. Scrimp had no intention of being cruel , but merely made the not uncommon mistake of supposing that what is good for one person is of course good for everybody else . She was dyspeptic , and insisted that she found her favorite plan exceedingly beneficial in her own case ; therefore she was sure so delicate a child as Gracie ought to conform to the same regimen .