two o’clock
This is a dance commencing usually at midnight or a little after , and continuing indefinitely toward daybreak . The young people were attended by their matrons , who were there to supervise the morals and manners of their charges . To secure the performance of this duty , the young people took good care to sit where the matrons could not see them , nor did they , by any chance , look toward the quarter in which the matrons sat . In that quarter through all the varying mazes of the prolonged dance , to two o'clock , to three , to four , sat the bediamonded dowagers , the mothers , the matrons , -- against nature , against common sense . They babbled with each other , they drowsed , they dozed . Their fans fell listless into their laps . In the adjoining room , out of the waking sight , even , of the then sleeping mammas , the daughters whirled in the close embrace of partners who had brought down bottles of champagne from the supper-room , and put them by the side of their chairs for occasional refreshment during the dance .