Half past twelve
Only the eyes that he was not looking at now seemed singularly unsure , as if they had seen something they had pondered over lightly , as a mere possibility , years ago , take on sudden impatient body and demand to be heard . She let her hand lie lightly in his for a moment . Then she rose . `` Half past twelve '' she said a little stiffly . `` Time for two such genuine antiques as we are to think of being put away in our cases for the night . '' It was three in the afternoon before Oliver walked into the Hotel Rosario again and when he did it was with the feeling that the house detective might come up at any moment , touch him quietly on the shoulder and remark that his bag _ might _ be sent down to the station after him if he paid his bill and left quietly and at once . An appearance before a hoarse judge who fined him ten dollars in as many seconds had not helped his self-confidence though he kept wondering if there was a sliding scale of penalties for improper language applied to the police of St. Louis and just what would have happened if he had called the large blue policeman anything out of his A.E.F. vocabulary .