eight o'clock in the morning
In one particular their good taste might have been disputed ; but the Creole allowed himself that one feather in the cap of his fugacious splendour . Might he not be allowed , for the one day of the _ renaissance _ , to be `` Grandemont du Puy Charles , of Charleroi '' ? He sent the invitations out early in January so that the guests might not fail to receive due notice . At eight o'clock in the morning of the nineteenth , the lower coast steamboat _ River Belle _ gingerly approached the long unused landing at Charleroi . The bridge was lowered , and a swarm of the plantation hands streamed along the rotting pier , bearing ashore a strange assortment of freight . Great shapeless bundles and bales and packets swathed in cloth and bound with ropes ; tubs and urns of palms , evergreens , and tropical flowers ; tables , mirrors , chairs , couches , carpets , and pictures -- all carefully bound and padded against the dangers of transit . Grandemont was among them , the busiest there .