noon
When I reached the front door , with all my recklessness , I felt glad to see no head poking out of windows -- above all , no _ female _ witness to my unwomanly conduct . I felt thoroughly ashamed of myself as I got down from the box ; and I confess it was with feelings of intense relief that a polite groom of the chambers informed me , with many apologies , `` her ladyship and all the ladies had gone to dress , '' and handed me over , with a courtly bow , to a tidy elderly woman , in a cap that could only belong to a housekeeper . She conducted me to my room , and consigned me to Gertrude , already hard at work unpacking upon her knees . A very pretty little room it was ; none of your enormous dreary state-apartments , dull as a theatre in the daytime , with a bed like a mourning coach , and corners of gloom and mystery , uncomfortable even at noon , and fatal to the nerves when seen by the light of a solitary wax-candle . On the contrary , it was quite the room for a young lady : pink hangings tinted one 's complexion with that roseate bloom which the poet avers is as indispensable to woman as `` man 's imperial front '' -- whatever _ that _ means -- is to the male biped . A dark carpet with a rich border relieved the light-coloured paper , picked out sparingly with flowers ; the toilet-table was covered with a blushing transparency of pink under white , like sunset on snow -- perhaps I should rather say like a muslin dress over a satin slip ; and there was a charming full-length glass , in which I could contemplate my whole person from top to toe , without slanting it an inch off the perpendicular . The lookout was into Lady Scapegrace 's garden , a little _ bijou _ of a place , that bore ample witness to the good taste of its mistress .