eleven o’clock
The female portion of the assembly flock into the side-rooms to attire themselves for the evening ; and re-issue clad in white muslin , and gay with bright ribbons and brass jewelry . The dancing begins as the first tallow candles are stuck up about the walls , the music coming from a couple of fiddlers in a corner of the room . Bride and bridegroom open the ball , and the floor is soon covered with whirling couples , and every one 's spirits rise . The bridal pair mingle freely in the throng , and here and there a musical man sings vigorously as he drags his partner through the Blue Water or John Speriwig ; boys shout and applaud , and the enjoyment and confusion are intense , till eleven o'clock comes . By this time the children who swarm in the side-rooms are not to be kept quiet longer , even by hunches of bread and cake ; there is a general howl and wail , that rises yet higher than the scraping of fiddles , and mothers rush from their partners to knock small heads together , and cuff little nursemaids , and force the wailers down into unoccupied corners of beds , under tables and behind boxes . In half an hour every variety of childish snore is heard on all sides , and it has become perilous to raise or set down a foot in any of the side-rooms lest a small head or hand should be crushed . Now too the busy feet have broken the solid coating of the floor , and a cloud of fine dust arises , that makes a yellow halo round the candles , and sets asthmatic people coughing , and grows denser , till to recognise any one on the opposite side of the room becomes impossible , and a partner 's face is seen through a yellow mist .