9 o'clock
Maude read Spenser 's poem , more understandingly than had Melvale , and the Goddess of Truth so completely filled her mind during those summer weeks that William Henry Montgomery was almost obscured except when she dreamed how she would like him to see her triumph . At last came the day of the parade . Melvale , always fertile with expedients , had arranged with Townsend , floor-walker on the fourth floor , who lived on Fulton avenue just where the big parade was to form , that the Goddess Maude might array herself in her finery at his home . Bright and early that morning he sent a carriage for Miss Preston , and ordered the float to be at Townsend 's curb by 9 o'clock . The beautiful gown and its accessories , laid away in soft tissue paper , were brought from the Lexington-street store , and a couple of the girls from the dressmaking department were on hand to aid the final making of a goddess . Maude would not have been a woman had she not taken her time to get into such finery , and Melvale began to grow nervous as the parade hour grew near . The street was in confusion with the gathering of floats and men and curious crowds of onlookers .