midnight
And yet these causes for satisfaction had been nothing more than a setting for Brenda Jervaise . It was she who had stimulated us , given us a lead and kept us dancing to the tune of her exciting personality . She had made all the difference between an ordinarily successful dance and what Mrs. Sturton at the open door continually described as `` a really delightful evening . '' She had to repeat the phrase , because with the first stroke of midnight ringing out from the big clock over the stables , came also the first intimation of the new movement . Mrs. Sturton 's fly was mysteriously delayed ; and I had a premonition even then , that the delay promised some diversion . The tone of the stable clock had its influence , perhaps . It was so precisely the tone of a stage clock -- high and pretentious , and with a disturbing suggestion of being unmelodiously flawed .