midnight
Nothing much out of the ordinary in the tunes and the three orchestras and the fact that a dozen gentlemen dressed as the Devil are finding their tails very inconvenient as regards the shimmy and a dozen Joans of Arc are eying each other with looks of dumb hatred whenever they pass . Nothing singular about the light-heart throb of the music , the smell of powder and scent and heat and flowers , the whole loose drifting garland of the dancers , blowing over and around the floor in the idle designs of sand , floating like scraps of colored paper through a smooth wind heavy with music as the hours run away like light water through the fingers . But outside the house the Italian gardens are open , little lanterns spot them like elf-lights , shining on hedge-green , pale marble ; the night is pallid with near and crowded stars , the air warm as Summer water , sweet as dear youth . The unmasking is to take place at midnight and it is past eleven when Oliver drops back into the stag line after being stuck for a dance and a half with a leaden-footed human flower-basket who devoted the entire time to nervous giggles and the single coy statement that she just knew he never could guess who she was but she recognized him perfectly . He starts looking around for Ted . There he is , scanning the clown 's parade with the eyes of an anxious hawk , disgruntled nervousness plain in every line of his body . Then Oliver remembers that he saw a slim Chinese girl in loose blue silks go off the floor ten minutes or so ago with a tall musketeer .