About half past three
`` Tie my hair ribbon for me , please ! '' `` I ca n't find my only pair of silk stockings ! '' and other such demands . About half past three the first carriages from the station that were bringing the visitors began to arrive . Every one was doing a favor for some one else , or greeting friends and relatives . Such happy excitement prevailed everywhere that the school resembled a cage of fluttering butterflies . At four o'clock the recital began .