midnight
`` You really ought to be here , Fritz , '' she answered . It ended there . Lady Holme knew her husband pretty well . She fancied that the speeches at the dinner given to Sir Jacob Rowley , ex-Governor of some place she knew nothing about , would turn out to be very lengthy indeed -- speeches to keep a man far from his home till after midnight . On the evening of the twelfth Lord Holme had not arrived when the first of his wife 's guests came slowly up the stairs , and Lady Holme began gently to make his excuses to all the tiresome dears who had had their cards left at forty-two Cadogan Square . There were a great many tiresome dears . The stream flowed steadily , and towards half-past eleven resembled a flood-tide .