midnight
Over the wide floor was stretched a linen crash ; from the ceiling and bracketed against the white walls , relieved here and there by long silken curtains of gold-yellow , blazed clusters of candles , looking for all the world like so many bursting sky-rockets , while at one end , behind a mass of flowering plants , sat a quartette of musicians , led by an old darky with a cotton-batting head , who had come all the way from Philadelphia a-purpose . Nor had the inner man been forgotten : bowls of hot apple toddy steamed away in the dining-room ; bowls of eggnog frothed away in the library ; ladlings of punch , and the contents of several old cut-glass decanters , flanked by companies of pipe-stem glasses , were being served in the dressing-rooms ; while relays of hot terrapin , canvas-back duck , sizzling hot ; olio , cold joints ; together with every conceivable treatment and condition of oysters -- in scallop shells , on silver platters and in wooden plates -- raw , roasted , fried , broiled , baked , and stewed -- everything in fact that could carry out the colonel 's watchword , `` Eat , drink , and be merry , '' were within the beck and call of each and every guest . And there were to be no interludes of hunger and thirst if the host could help it . No dull pauses nor recesses , but one continued round , lasting until midnight , at which hour the final banquet in the dining-room was to be served , and the great surprise of the evening reached -- the formal announcement of Harry and Kate 's engagement , followed by the opening of the celebrated bottle of the Jefferson 1800 Monticello Madeira , recorked at our young hero 's birth . And it goes without saying that there were no interludes . The fun began at once , a long line of merry talk and laughter following the wake of the procession , led by the host and Kate , the colonel signalling at last to the cotton-batting with the goggle spectacles , who at once struck up a polka and away they all went , Harry and Kate in the lead , the whole room in a whirl . This over and the dancers out of breath , Goggles announced a quadrille -- the colonel and St. George helping to form the sets .