About five o'clock
Where Mrs. Teunis Van Dam led , Albany naturally followed ; and with Albany subdued , Cora directed her conquering march toward other worlds . In the year of her publicity she had , through Mrs. Tommy Kidder and other agencies , brushed here and there at the rim of the magic inner circle of metropolitan society , for every inch of which she now encroached an ell . Shelby gained his first knowledge of the astonishing extent of his wife 's acquaintance when he scanned the invitation list of a thousand names , and was told by the military secretary that New York 's quota was coming by special train . About five o'clock on the evening of the ball , the governor came home fagged and depressed . Aside from canal reform , still drifting through seas of talk , the legislative session presented several insistent public questions which seemed to have imposed their cumulative worry on his morning hours ; later had come an acrimonious hearing over the removal of an incompetent district attorney ; then a quarter-hour 's fencing with the press correspondents , who wanted to know things which it was inexpedient to tell ; and , finally , a rasping conference with the Boss , who , using the ball as a cover for one of his rare pilgrimages to Albany , had , throughout the day , held levee in his hotel parlors with such vogue that at moments both Senate and Assembly all but lacked a quorum . Mrs. Tommy Kidder 's brougham blocked the porte-cochère as Shelby mounted the steps of the executive mansion , and at the door he met the volatile lady herself . `` I 've been watching the workmen give the finishing touch , governor , '' she gushed .