eight o'clock
Nancy had no especial work , so she assumed the _ rôle _ of general advisor and final court of appeal . Such a concourse of guests had been invited that it was doubtful if the accommodation was sufficient . But , as Will Devitt suggested , they danced closer together nowadays , so that the room required would not be so much . By eight o'clock the merry sleigh-bells were jingling over the Monk Road . Boys and girls , some older than the term would imply , were tumbling out of the robes in the glare of the big tin lamp , hung to the gable end , which Nancy had borrowed from the church gate . The fiddlers arrived early , and after a warm at the hall stove , began tuning up on the improvised platform at the end of the parlor . The floor manager , a tall young Irishman named O'Connell , raised his voice above the babel of talking and laughing , and proclaimed the opening number .