In the story... Spencer Cavendish has graduated from Trinity College at Cambridge in 1855. A year later he revisits his alma mater. He invites his sister, Louisa, and Diana to meet him there. Unexpectedly, he receives an invitation to High Table for lunch with a former professor and cannot join his guests right away. The women are left without a chaperone in what was then a male bastion. A situation arises that causes Spencer much anxiety for Diana.

Stands the church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?