about two o'clock
And as she went to Court in the carriage , the family carriage , she adopted a demeanour so grand , self-satisfied , deliberate , and imposing that it made even Lady Jane laugh . She walked into the royal apartments with a toss of the head which would have befitted an empress , and I have no doubt had she been one , she would have become the character perfectly . We are authorized to state that Mrs. Rawdon Crawley 's costume de cour on the occasion of her presentation to the Sovereign was of the most elegant and brilliant description . Some ladies we may have seen -- we who wear stars and cordons and attend the St. James 's assemblies , or we , who , in muddy boots , dawdle up and down Pall Mall and peep into the coaches as they drive up with the great folks in their feathers -- some ladies of fashion , I say , we may have seen , about two o'clock of the forenoon of a levee day , as the laced-jacketed band of the Life Guards are blowing triumphal marches seated on those prancing music-stools , their cream-coloured chargers -- who are by no means lovely and enticing objects at that early period of noon . A stout countess of sixty , decolletee , painted , wrinkled with rouge up to her drooping eyelids , and diamonds twinkling in her wig , is a wholesome and edifying , but not a pleasant sight . She has the faded look of a St. James 's Street illumination , as it may be seen of an early morning , when half the lamps are out , and the others are blinking wanly , as if they were about to vanish like ghosts before the dawn . Such charms as those of which we catch glimpses while her ladyship 's carriage passes should appear abroad at night alone .