noon
said Mr. Shrewd to Lady Simper . `` What an immense match for the girl ! '' was Lady Simper 's reply . Amidst the music , the dancing , the throng , the noise , Lucy found it easy to recover herself ; and disengaging her arm from Lord Mauleverer , as she perceived her father , she rejoined the squire , and remained a patient listener to his remarks till late in the noon it became an understood matter that people were expected to go into a long room in order to eat and drink . Mauleverer , now alive to the duties of his situation , and feeling exceedingly angry with Lucy , was more reconciled than he otherwise might have been to the etiquette which obliged him to select for the object of his hospitable cares an old dowager duchess instead of the beauty of the fete ; but he took care to point out to the squire the places appointed for himself and daughter , which were , though at some distance from the earl , under the providence of his vigilant survey . While Mauleverer was deifying the dowager duchess , and refreshing his spirits with a chicken and a medicinal glass of madeira , the conversation near Lucy turned , to her infinite dismay , upon Clifford . Some one had seen him in the grounds , booted and in a riding undress -LRB- in that day people seldom rode and danced in the same conformation of coat -RRB- ; and as Mauleverer was a precise person about those little matters of etiquette , this negligence of Clifford 's made quite a subject of discussion .