a full day 's idleness seemed without meaning , when matched against such stretches of dead time , and almost difficult to avoid when so abruptly they had been relieved of the necessity or even the opportunity to fend for their own care ; one after another unspooled into a week , and when they had only begun to settle it , that they must shortly depart , jia interrupted their plans by visiting to invite them formally to a banquet , to be held at the night of the new moon , a week hence .