ten o'clock
She welcomed Lord Robert effusively , and motioned to him to stand by her side . Then she introduced her daughter to Drake and sent them adrift through the rooms . The rooms were large ones with parquet flooring from which all furniture had been removed , except the palms and ferns by the walls and the heavy chandeliers overhead . It was not yet ten o'clock , but already the house was crowded , and every moment there were floods of fresh arrivals . First came statesmen and diplomatists , then people who had been to the theatres , and toward the end of the evening some of the actors themselves . The night was close and the atmosphere hot and oppressive . At the farther end of the suite there was a refreshment-room with its lantern lights pulled open ; and there the crush was densest and the commotion greatest .