Note 246 — No. 263. [Steele. From Tuesday, Dec. 12, to Thursday, Dec. 14, 1710.
Reading edition
Four o'clock was soon the fashionable hour. Mr. Dobson quotes from Swift's "Journal of a Modern Lady" (1728):—
"This business of importance o'er, And madam almost dressed by four, The footman, in his usual phrase, Comes up with 'Madam, dinner stays.'"