five o'clock in the morning
If Miss Rebecca Sharp had determined in her heart upon making the conquest of this big beau , I do n't think , ladies , we have any right to blame her ; for though the task of husband-hunting is generally , and with becoming modesty , entrusted by young persons to their mammas , recollect that Miss Sharp had no kind parent to arrange these delicate matters for her , and that if she did not get a husband for herself , there was no one else in the wide world who would take the trouble off her hands . What causes young people to `` come out , '' but the noble ambition of matrimony ? What sends them trooping to watering-places ? What keeps them dancing till five o'clock in the morning through a whole mortal season ? What causes them to labour at pianoforte sonatas , and to learn four songs from a fashionable master at a guinea a lesson , and to play the harp if they have handsome arms and neat elbows , and to wear Lincoln Green toxophilite hats and feathers , but that they may bring down some `` desirable '' young man with those killing bows and arrows of theirs ? What causes respectable parents to take up their carpets , set their houses topsy-turvy , and spend a fifth of their year 's income in ball suppers and iced champagne ? Is it sheer love of their species , and an unadulterated wish to see young people happy and dancing ?