four o'clock in the
afternoon
The reader will doubtless remember the promise which Arabella had made to Mr. Gibson . That promise she had already fulfilled , -- to the amazement of her mother and sister ; -- and when Miss Stanbury entered the room the elder daughter of the family was seen without her accustomed head-gear . If the truth is to be owned , Miss Stanbury gave the poor young woman no credit for her new simplicity , but put down the deficiency to the charge of domestic slatternliness . She was unjust enough to declare afterwards that she had found Arabella French only half dressed at between three and four o'clock in the afternoon ! From which this lesson may surely be learned , -- that though the way down Avernus may be , and customarily is , made with great celerity , the return journey , if made at all , must be made slowly . A young woman may commence in chignons by attaching any amount of an edifice to her head ; but the reduction should be made by degrees . Arabella 's edifice had , in Miss Stanbury 's eyes , been the ugliest thing in art that she had known ; but , now , its absence offended her , and she most untruly declared that she had come upon the young woman in the middle of the day just out of her bed-room and almost in her dressing-gown .