three o'clock
`` The details of such a bill must be maddening , '' said Betty , sympathetically , `` but , after all , it is an honour to be on the Ways and Means Committee . There is compensation in everything . '' `` I do n't know . When a man lobbyist tries to find out your weak spot and play on it , you can kick him out of the house , but when they set a woman at you , all you can do is to bow and say : ` My dear madam , it is with the greatest regret I am obliged to inform you that I have sat up every night until three o'clock studying this subject , and that I have made up my mind . ' Whereupon she talks straight ahead and hints at trouble with certain constituents next year who want free coal and an exorbitant duty on Zante currants , raisins , wine , and wool . The whole army of lobbyists have camped on my doorstep ever since we began to draw up this bill . How they find time to camp on any one 's else would make an interesting study in ubiquity . ''