Jacintha told them he was angry, and that made them nervous and flurried, and their fingers strayed wildly among hooks and eyes, and all sorts of fastenings; they were not ready till half-past nine.

Conscious they deserved a scolding, they sent Josephine down first to mollify.

She dawned upon the honest soldier so radiant, so dazzling in her snowy dress, with her coronet of pearls (an heirloom), and her bridal veil parted, and the flush of conscious beauty on her cheek, that instead of scolding her, he actually blurted out, "Well! by St.Denis it was worth waiting half an hour for." He recovered a quarter of an hour by making the driver gallop.

Then occasional shrieks issued from the carriage that held the baroness.

That ancient lady feared annihilation: she had not come down from a galloping age.
They drove into the town, drew up at the mayor's house, were received with great ceremony by that functionary and Picard, and entered the house.
When their carriages rattled into the street from the north side, Colonel Dujardin had already entered it from the south, and was riding at a foot's pace along the principal street.