twelve o'clock
She had reason to think that she had made herself equally necessary to her host and hostess ; and if only she had seen any perfectly irreproachable means of drawing a financial profit from the situation , there would have been no cloud on her horizon . The truth was that her funds , as usual , were inconveniently low ; and to neither Dorset nor his wife could this vulgar embarrassment be safely hinted . Still , the need was not a pressing one ; she could worry along , as she had so often done before , with the hope of some happy change of fortune to sustain her ; and meanwhile life was gay and beautiful and easy , and she was conscious of figuring not unworthily in such a setting . She was engaged to breakfast that morning with the Duchess of Beltshire , and at twelve o'clock she asked to be set ashore in the gig . Before this she had sent her maid to enquire if she might see Mrs. Dorset ; but the reply came back that the latter was tired , and trying to sleep . Lily thought she understood the reason of the rebuff . Her hostess had not been included in the Duchess 's invitation , though she herself had made the most loyal efforts in that direction .