ten o'clock
before
Among those who watched the incipient flirtation commencing between the viscount and the heiress was Beatrice Middleton . She had come late . She had had all the children to see properly fed and put to bed before she could begin to dress herself . And one restless little brother had kept her by his crib singing songs and telling stories until ten o'clock before he finally dropped off to sleep , and left her at liberty to go to her room and dress herself for the ball . Her dress was simplicity itself -- a plain white tarletan with white ribbons ; but it well became the angelic purity of her type of beauty . Her golden ringlets and sapphire eyes were the only jewels she wore , the roses on her cheeks the only flowers . When she entered the dancing room she saw four quadrilles in active progress on the floor ; and about four hundred spectators crowded along the walls , some sitting , some standing , some reclining , and some grouped .