It was now five o'clock on a winter afternoon, the hour at which ladies are drinking tea, and idle men playing whist at the clubs,--at which young idle men are sometimes allowed to flirt, and at which, as Lady Carbury thought, her son might have been paying his court to Marie Melmotte the great heiress.

It was now five o'clock on a winter afternoon, and Lady Carbury thought her son might have been paying his court to Marie Melmotte the great heiress.
