midnight
Imogene drove with them to the Cascine , where they bowed to a numerous military acquaintance , and they asked her if Mrs. Bowen would let her join them in a theatre party that evening : they were New-Yorkers by birth , and it was to be a theatre party in the New York style ; they were to be chaperoned by a young married lady ; two young men cousins of theirs , just out from America , had taken the box . When Imogene returned home she told Mrs. Bowen that she had accepted this invitation . Mrs. Bowen said nothing , but when one of the young men came up to hand Imogene down to the carriage , which was waiting with the others at the gate , she could not have shown a greater tolerance of his second-rate New Yorkiness if she had been a Boston dowager offering him the scrupulous hospitalities of her city . Imogene came in at midnight ; she hummed an air of the opera as she took off her wraps and ornaments in her room , and this in the quiet of the hour had a terrible , almost profane effect : it was as if some other kind of girl had whistled . She showed the same nonchalance at breakfast , where she was prompt , and answered Mrs. Bowen 's inquiries about her pleasure the night before with a liveliness that ignored the polite resolution that prompted them . Mr. Morton was the first to arrive , and if his discouragement began at once , the first steps masked themselves in a reckless welcome , which seemed to fill him with joy , and Mrs. Bowen with silent perplexity . The girl ran on about her evening at the opera , and about the weather , and the excursion they were going to make ; and after an apparently needless ado over the bouquet which he brought her , together with one for Mrs. Bowen , she put it into her belt , and made Colville notice it when he came : he had not thought to bring flowers .