eight o’clock
Miss Jessie returned from her expedition just as I was tying the strings of the portfolio , and , womanlike , instantly asked leave to peep inside , which favor I , manlike , positively declined to grant . As soon as dinner was over our guest retired to array herself in magnificent evening costume . It had been arranged that the readings were to take place in her own sitting-room ; and she was so enthusiastically desirous to do honor to the occasion , that she regretted not having brought with her from London the dress in which she had been presented at court the year before , and not having borrowed certain materials for additional splendor which she briefly described as `` aunt 's diamonds . '' Toward eight o'clock we assembled in the sitting-room , and a strangely assorted company we were . At the head of the table , radiant in silk and jewelry , flowers and furbelows , sat The Queen of Hearts , looking so handsome and so happy that I secretly congratulated my absent son on the excellent taste he had shown in falling in love with her . Round this bright young creature -LRB- Owen , at the foot of the table , and Morgan and I on either side -RRB- sat her three wrinkled , gray-headed , dingily-attired hosts , and just behind her , in still more inappropriate companionship , towered the spectral figure of the man in armor , which had so unaccountably attracted her on her arrival . This strange scene was lighted up by candles in high and heavy brass sconces .