eleven until one
Its movements were , as has been said , more or less bovine and phlegmatic . To rush in with something utterly brilliant and pyrotechnic was to take notable chances . The more cautious members of Chicago society , even if they did not attend , would hear , and then would come ultimate comment and decision . The function began with a reception at four , which lasted until six-thirty , and this was followed by a dance at nine , with music by a famous stringed orchestra of Chicago , a musical programme by artists of considerable importance , and a gorgeous supper from eleven until one in a Chinese fairyland of lights , at small tables filling three of the ground-floor rooms . As an added fillip to the occasion Cowperwood had hung , not only the important pictures which he had purchased abroad , but a new one -- a particularly brilliant Gerome , then in the heyday of his exotic popularity -- a picture of nude odalisques of the harem , idling beside the highly colored stone marquetry of an oriental bath . It was more or less `` loose '' art for Chicago , shocking to the uninitiated , though harmless enough to the illuminati ; but it gave a touch of color to the art-gallery which the latter needed . There was also , newly arrived and newly hung , a portrait of Aileen by a Dutch artist , Jan van Beers , whom they had encountered the previous summer at Brussels .