midnight
Unable to bear the chagrin that was hers , she sprang up . Readjusting the gown she had partly thrown off , she seized her cloak and wrapped it about her . Then she fled up the stairway , and into the calm , starlit night to where her runabout awaited her , the victim of her own wrong-doing . * * * * * It was a happy trio of girls that , shortly before midnight , climbed into the Deans ' automobile , in which Mr. and Mrs. Dean sat patiently awaiting their exit from the stage door . Lawrence Armitage 's operetta had been an artistic as well as a financial success . It had been a `` Standing Room Only '' audience , and the proceeds were to be given to the Sanford Hospital for Children . Laurie had decreed this as a quiet memento to Constance 's devotion to little Charlie during his days of infirmity .