two o’clock
_ Love 's Young Dream _ MORNING came , and the great majority of the gentlemen rose early as Aurora . The chase is the favourite pastime of man and boy ; yet some preferred plundering their host 's preserves , by which means their slumbers were not so brief and their breakfast less disturbed . The _ battue _ , however , in time , called forth its band , and then one by one , or two by two , or sometimes even three , leaning on each other 's arms and smiling in each other 's faces , the ladies dropped into the breakfast-room at Castle Dacre . There , until two o'clock , a lounging meal might always be obtained , but generally by twelve the coast was clear ; for our party were a natural race of beings , and would have blushed if flaming noon had caught them napping in their easy couches . Our bright bird , May Dacre , too , rose from her bower , full of the memory of the sweetest dreams , and fresh as lilies ere they kiss the sun . She bends before her ivory crucifix , and gazes on her blessed mother 's face , where the sweet Florentine had tinged with light a countenance Too fair for worship , too divine for love ! And innocence has prayed for fresh support , and young devotion told her holy beads .