four in the morning
He gave Laetitia to Vernon Whitford for the final dance of the night , and he may have looked at her so much in pity of an elegant girl allied to such a partner . The `` Phoebus Apollo turned fasting friar '' had entirely forgotten his musical gifts in motion . He crossed himself and crossed his bewildered lady , and crossed everybody in the figure , extorting shouts of cordial laughter from his cousin Willoughby . Be it said that the hour was four in the morning , when dancers must laugh at somebody , if only to refresh their feet , and the wit of the hour administers to the wildest laughter . Vernon was likened to Theseus in the maze , entirely dependent upon his Ariadne ; to a fly released from a jam-pot ; to a `` salvage '' , or green , man caught in a web of nymphs and made to go the paces . Willoughby was inexhaustible in the happy similes he poured out to Miss Durham across the lines of Sir Roger de Coverley , and they were not forgotten , they procured him a reputation as a convivial sparkler . Rumour went the round that he intended to give Laetitia to Vernon for good , when he could decide to take Miss Durham to himself ; his generosity was famous ; but that decision , though the rope was in the form of a knot , seemed reluctant for the conclusive close haul ; it preferred the state of slackness ; and if he courted Laetitia on behalf of his cousin , his cousinly love must have been greater than his passion , one had to suppose .