noon
In the outer apartments , Chia Chen did the honours among the whole party of relatives and friends , some of whom asked to be allowed to stay for their meals , while others at this stage took their leave . And after they had one by one returned thanks , the dukes , marquises , earls , viscounts and barons , each in respective batches , -LRB- got up to go , -RRB- and they kept on leaving from between 1 and 3 p.m. before they had finally all dispersed . In the inner Chambers , the ladies were solely entertained and attended to by lady Feng . First to make a move were the consorts of officials ; and noon had also come , by the time the whole party of them had taken their departure . Those that remained were simply a few relatives of the same clan and others like them , who eventually left after the completion of the three days ' rationalistic liturgies . The two ladies Hsing and Wang , well aware at this time that lady Feng could on no account return home , desired to enter the city at once ; and madame Wang wanted to take Pao-yü home ; but Pao-yü , who had , on an unexpected occasion , come out into the country , entertained , of course , no wish to go back ; and he would agree to nothing else than to stay behind with lady Feng , so that madame Wang had no alternative but to hand him over to her charge and to start . This Temple of the Iron Fence had , in fact , been erected in days gone by , at the expense of the two dukes Ning and Jung ; and there still remained up to these days , acres of land , from which were derived the funds for incense and lights for such occasions , on which the coffins of any members , old or young , -LRB- who died -RRB- in the capital , had to be deposited in this temple ; and the inner and outer houses , in this compound were all kept in readiness and good order , for the accommodation of those who formed part of the cortège .