midnight
Jellies , custards , oyster-soup , ice-cream , wine and water , gushed in profuse cascades over transparent precipices of _ tulle _ , muslin , gauze , silk , and satin . Clumsy boys tumbled against costly dresses and smeared them with preserves , -- when clean plates failed , the contents of plates already used were quietly `` chucked '' under the table -- heeltaps of champagne were poured into the oyster tureens or overflowed upon plates to clear the glasses -- wine of all kinds flowed in torrents , particularly down the throats of very young men , who evinced their manhood by becoming noisy , troublesome , and disgusting , and were finally either led , sick , into the hat room , or carried out of the way , drunk . The supper over , the young people attended by their matrons descended to the dancing-room for the `` German . '' This is a dance commencing usually at midnight or a little after , and continuing indefinitely toward daybreak . The young people were attended by their matrons , who were there to supervise the morals and manners of their charges . To secure the performance of this duty , the young people took good care to sit where the matrons could not see them , nor did they , by any chance , look toward the quarter in which the matrons sat . In that quarter through all the varying mazes of the prolonged dance , to two o'clock , to three , to four , sat the bediamonded dowagers , the mothers , the matrons , -- against nature , against common sense .