eleven o'clock
This he said with a half-bitter laugh . Clarissa was spared the trouble of answering by the entrance of more bridesmaids -- Lady Louisa Challoner and Miss Granger -- with three of the military men , who wore hothouse flowers in their buttonholes , and were altogether arrayed like the lilies of the field , but who had rather the air of considering this marriage business a tiresome interruption to partridge-shooting . `` I suppose we are going to start directly , '' cried Lady Louisa , who was a fluttering creature of three-and-thirty , always eager to flit from one scene to another . `` If we do n't , I really think we shall be late -- and there is some dreadful law , is n't there , to prevent people being married after eleven o'clock ? '' `` After twelve , '' Mr. Granger answered in his matter of fact way . `` Lady Geraldine has ample margin for delay . '' `` But why not after twelve ? ''