about six o'clock at
night
cried Londonderry ; `` come in for a bit of supper , all of you , and let us talk over the plan of campaign . '' Old Mrs. Talbot had been prepared for some such invasion , and had an excellent rabbit-pie awaiting them . There was a delightful trait of old Mrs. Talbot 's which I would like to record , a curious chronological method of remembering great occasions and startling events by the food of the day . Thus , for example , when with eyes that would still fill with tears , though it was ten years ago , she would tell the story of how her only boy had been brought home dead one night from an accident at his workshop , she would fix the date by saying , `` It was about six o'clock at night , and I 'd just got a nice little bit of liver and bacon cooking for your father 's dinner , when there came a knock at the door ... '' Sometimes it was , `` I 'd just sent Liz out for a little bit of fish , '' or it would be Spanish onions maybe , or a lovely little rabbit , that marked the day . The night when the attack on Coalchester was planned was marked , as I have said , by rabbit-pie . Mrs. Talbot would hardly have understood the significance of that rabbit-pie , though in the course of her occasional bobbings in and out of the room , to see that the young men were doing justice to her food , -- she had a curious notion that young men never ate enough , -- she would hear snatches of what she called `` deep talk , '' or shake her old head at her coming son-in-law , whom she already adored and mothered , with a `` Law ! what a boy it is ! ''