twelve o'clock
Without a word Maggie whirled about and the next moment she was in her room on the floor below . She did not know what prompted her , but she had a frantic desire to get out of this plain shirt-waist and skirt and into something that would be striking . She considered her scanty wardrobe ; her father had recently spoken of handsome gowns and furnishings , but as yet these existed only in his words , and the pseudo-evening gowns which she had worn to restaurant dances with Barney she knew to be cheap and uneffective . Suddenly she remembered the things Hunt had given her , or had loaned her , the evening four months earlier when he had taken her to an artists ' masquerade ball -- though to her it had been a bitter disappointment when Hunt had carried her away before the unmasking at twelve o'clock . She tore off the offending waist and skirt , pulled from beneath the bed the pasteboard box containing her costume ; and in five minutes of flying hands the transformation was completed . Her thick hair of burnished black was piled on top of her head in gracious disorder , and from it swayed a scarlet paper flower . About her lithe body , over a black satin skirt , swathing her in its graceful folds , clung a Spanish shawl of saffron-colored background with long brown silken fringe , and flowered all over with brown and red and peacock blue , and held in place by three huge barbaric pins jeweled with colored glass , one at either hip and upon her right shoulder , leaving her smooth shoulders bare and free .