twelve o’clock
in a tone of mingled disgust and pity , which to Maggie 's imagination was equivalent to the strongest expression of public opinion . Mr Rappit , the hair-dresser , with his well-anointed coronal locks tending wavily upward , like the simulated pyramid of flame on a monumental urn , seemed to her at that moment the most formidable of her contemporaries , into whose street at St Ogg 's she would carefully refrain from entering through the rest of her life . Moreover , the preparation for a visit being always a serious affair in the Dodson family , Martha was enjoined to have Mrs Tulliver 's room ready an hour earlier than usual , that the laying out of the best clothes might not be deferred till the last moment , as was sometimes the case in families of lax views , where the ribbon-strings were never rolled up , where there was little or no wrapping in silver paper , and where the sense that the Sunday clothes could be got at quite easily produced no shock to the mind . Already , at twelve o'clock , Mrs Tulliver had on her visiting costume , with a protective apparatus of brown holland , as if she had been a piece of satin furniture in danger of flies ; Maggie was frowning and twisting her shoulders , that she might if possible shrink away from the prickliest of tuckers , while her mother was remonstrating , `` Do n't , Maggie , my dear ; do n't make yourself so ugly ! '' and Tom 's cheeks were looking particularly brilliant as a relief to his best blue suit , which he wore with becoming calmness , having , after a little wrangling , effected what was always the one point of interest to him in his toilet : he had transferred all the contents of his everyday pockets to those actually in wear . As for Lucy , she was just as pretty and neat as she had been yesterday ; no accidents ever happened to her clothes , and she was never uncomfortable in them , so that she looked with wondering pity at Maggie , pouting and writhing under the exasperating tucker . Maggie would certainly have torn it off , if she had not been checked by the remembrance of her recent humiliation about her hair ; as it was , she confined herself to fretting and twisting , and behaving peevishly about the card-houses which they were allowed to build till dinner , as a suitable amusement for boys and girls in their best clothes .