9:30
The `` Petrel '' had been in the harbor but a few days , and on this evening a dance was given at the hotel in honor of her arrival . It was to be a cotillon , and Nat Ridgeway was going to lead with Josie Herrick . There had been a coaching party to Tia Juana that day , and Miss Herrick had returned to the hotel only in time to dress . By 9:30 she emerged from the process -- which had involved her mother , her younger sister , her maid , and one of the hotel chambermaids -- a dainty , firm-corseted little body , all tulle , white satin , and high-piled hair . She carried Marechal Niel roses , ordered by wire from Monterey ; and about an hour later , when Ridgeway gave the nod to the waiting musicians , and swung her off to the beat of a two-step , there was not a more graceful little figure upon the floor of the incomparable round ballroom of the Coronado Hotel . The cotillon was a great success . The ensigns and younger officers of the monitor -- at that time anchored off the hotel -- attended in uniform ; and enough of the members of what was known in San Francisco as the `` dancing set '' were present to give the affair the necessary entrain .