half past four
And when his attention was called to the fact that the names of the entire party were required , he shrugged his shoulders and announced : `` I regret , sir , that I do not remember the names of all the persons who comprise her highness ' suite , but I will supply you presently with a list of them . '' In the parlor of the apartments occupied by the princess , her maid was removing the furs and wraps and making her mistress comfortable , for there is inevitably after a sea voyage , a few hours of fatigue which nothing but restful quiet and utter idleness will overcome ; and therefore an hour or more later , when a visiting card was taken to the princess she did not even give herself the trouble to examine it , but said while she peered through half closed eyelids : `` Whoever it is , Orloff , say that I will not receive until four this afternoon . '' Down below , in the office of the hotel , the gentleman who had sent up the card and who received this message in reply to it , shrugged his shoulders , glanced at the face of his watch to discover that it was yet barely noon-time , crossed to the book stall where he secured something to read and thereby while away the time , and then having sought a comfortable chair in a secluded corner deposited himself in it with an air of finality which indicated that he had no idea of departing from the hotel until after he had secured the solicited audience . At four he sent a second card to the princess ; at half past four he was admitted to her presence . If the eyes of that curious throng of people who had watched her arrival at the steamship pier could have seen her then , when this man who had waited so long was shown into her presence , they would have been amply repaid for their admiring curiosity concerning her . It is trite to speak of a woman as being radiantly beautiful , commonplace to refer to it at all , save by implication , since feminine beauty is a composite attribute , vague and indefinable , and should possess no single quality to individualize it . Beauty such as that possessed by Princess Zara can neither be defined nor described .