noon
`` She is too heavy for a whim '' , answered the French , `` too dear for a threat , and too fantastic for a tool . Time will show '' . But this was no answer at all : something more to the point came from a multitudinous tumult of sledges below -- the workmen `` wedging-up '' . At last , soon after noon , Hogarth , with a considerable following , was seen ascending the steps , on his arm the Queen of the Ceremony -- a little Bavarian Gräfin , famous for her face : he , princely now with that cosmopolitan polish picked up in Courts , bending above her with laughter , making her laugh also , as they paced up . And at once the invited , including the Board of Verification , entered the hull upon a tour of sight-seeing , conducted by a manager of the contractors . Already the set-up wedges had raised the _ Boodah _ from her keel-block , and left her resting on the great braced ground-ways ; and now down to the sea 's brink the greasers were busy , prodigals in tallow , while , within , the seven hundred trooped from spectacle to spectacle , like a tourist group guided through the Louvre . An hour , and they anew appeared on the roof , trooping toward that balustrade that faced the sea : upon which the throngs felt the impending of the event , and intently watched .