twelve o'clock
Fit for Buckin ` am Palace and Queen Victoria ! And all by your little self , too . -- My dear , I must give you a good ` UG ! '' Hence , when at twelve o'clock the company began to stream in , they found Mrs. Devine installed behind the barricade of cups , saucers and glasses ; and she it was who dispensed tea and coffee and ladled out the claret-cup ; thus leaving Mary free to keep an argus eye on her visitors ' plates . At his entry Richard had raised expostulating eyebrows ; but his tongue of course was tied . And Mary made a lifelong friend . And now for the best part of an hour Mary 's sandwiches , sausage-rolls and meat-pies ; her jam-rolls , pastries and lemon-sponges ; her jellies , custards and creams ; her blanc and jaunemanges and whipped syllabubs ; her trifles , tipsy-cakes and charlotte-russes formed the theme of talk and objects of attention .