half past
ten
Last night she insisted on seeing the New Year in with me . If I had told Marigold that I proposed to sit up after midnight , he would have come in at ten o'clock , picked me up with finger and thumb as any Brobdingnagian might have picked up Gulliver , and put me straightway to bed . But Betty made the announcement in her airily imperious way , and Marigold , craven before Betty and Mrs. Marigold , said `` Very good , madam , '' as if Dr. Cliffe and his orders had never existed . At half past ten she packed off the happy and , I must confess , the somewhat sleepy Phyllis , and sat down , in her old attitude by the side of my chair , in front of the fire , and opened her dear heart to me . I had guessed what her proud soul had suffered during the last six months . One who loved her as I did could see it in her face , in her eyes , in the little hardening of her voice , in odd little betrayals of feverishness in her manner . But the outside world saw nothing .