ten in the morning
Charlotte Clifford used to tell Miss Winthrop that if Mrs. Valentine had been a canary , people would have forever been putting a towel over her cage to secure silence . She was always idle , save for a bewildering succession of reconstruction periods , apparently forestalling ruins that no one else could have prophesied . She dieted and reduced her hips ; had violet rays applied to her scalp ; had her wrinkles ironed out by some mysterious process . If you caught her before ten in the morning you would find her with crescent-shaped bits of court-plaster beside her eyes , in front of her ears , and between her brows . She was beautifully clothed , shod , gloved , massaged , manicured , and marcelled . She lived on the best sides of the streets and at the proper hotels . She answered notes , returned calls , and gave wedding presents punctiliously .