about two o’clock
The brass crosses pendent over their breasts relieved with a single glitter the sombre folds of their robes . Snowy coifs , which had cost the industrial schoolgirls of a sister house hours of labour and many tears , shone , glazed and unwrinkled , round their heads . Even the youngest of them had acquired the difficult art of walking gracefully with her hands folded in front of her . At about two o'clock the visitors began to arrive , although the train from Dublin which was to bring the very elect was not due for another half-hour . Lady Geoghegan , grown pleasantly stout and cheerfully benignant , came by a local train , and rejoiced the eyes of beholders with a dress made of one of the convent tweeds . Sir Gerald followed her , awkward and unwilling . He had been dragged with difficulty from his books and the society of his children , and was doubtful whether a cigar in a nunnery garden might not be counted sacrilege .