noon
My mother , who has exquisite taste in armour , had donned a superb Cinque-Cento cuirass , a short Zouave jacket embroidered with sequins , accordion-pleated bloomers , luminous leggings , brown Botticelli boots and one tiger-skin spat . Between the two hosts was the empty road before the Universal Provider 's Emporium . The Wenuses were within the building . By the time my wife 's warriors were settled and had completed the renovation of their toilets it was high noon . My wife had never imagined that any delay would occur : she had expected to engage with the enemy at once and have done with it , and consequently brought no provisions and no protection from the sun , which poured down a great bulk of pitiless beams . The absence of Wenuses and of any sound betokening their activity was disconcerting . However , my wife thought it best to lay siege to Whiteley 's rather than to enter the establishment .