midnight
It made the most of her , and she liked it beyond all her other negligees for its complaisance . She got a book , and sat down in a long , low chair before the fire and crossed her pretty slippers on the warm hearth . It was a quarter after three by the clock on the mantel ; but she had never felt more eagerly awake . The party had not been altogether to her mind , up to midnight , but after that it had been a series of rapid and vivid emotions , which continued themselves still in the tumult of her nerves , and seemed to demand an indefinite sequence of experience . She did not know what state her brother might be in when he came home ; she had not seen anything of him after she first went out to supper ; till then , though , he had kept himself straight , as he needs must ; but she could not tell what happened to him afterward . She hoped that he would come home able to talk , for she wished to talk . She wished to talk about herself ; and as she had already had flattery enough , she wanted some truth about herself ; she wanted Alan to say what he thought of her behavior the whole evening with that jay .