eight o'clock
These read as follows : -- Private View The pleasure of your company is requested at the coming-out party of The Hon. Patricia Brighthelmston July -- 189 - On the opposite side of the street . Dancing about 10-30 . 9 Dovermarle Street . At eight o'clock , as we were finishing our fish course , which chanced to be fried sole , the ball began literally to roll , and it required the greatest ingenuity on Francesca 's part and mine to be always down in our seats when Dawson entered with the dishes , and always at the window when he was absent . An enormous van had appeared , with half a dozen men walking behind it . In a trice , two of them had stretched a wire trellis across one wall of the drawing-room , and two more were trailing roses from floor to ceiling . Others tied the dark wood of the stair railing with tall Madonna lilies ; then they hung garlands of flowers from corner to corner and , alas !