midnight
It is , of course , essential to Sylvia that Dick should ask her to marry him before he learns who she really is , in order that she may be sure it is n't for her wealth that he is seeking her . This was the general lie of the land , though the thing was complicated , of course , by minor intrigues , as for instance in the first act , when Minim , the uncle , came to inquire of the successful composer what his terms would be for introducing a song into his opera , extolling the merits of Minim 's newest brand of liquid face-powder . Then there was the comic detective , whom Sylvia 's frantic father had given the job of finding her , and who , considering that he was the typical idiot detective of musical comedy , came unaccountably close to doing it . Then in the second act , there was the confusion produced by the fact that Dick and his poet friend gave a midnight party on the roof , unaware of the fact that Sylvia made it a practise , during these hot nights , to crawl out from her attic , on to this same roof and sleep there . And on this particular night , she had invited her six bachelor-girl friends , who were in her confidence , to come and share its hospitalities with her . The mutual misunderstandings , by this time piled mountain high , were projected into the third act by the not entirely unprecedented device of a mask ball in the palatial Fifth Avenue mansion of Sylvia 's father , in celebration of her return home -- a ball whose invitation list was precisely coincident , even down to the detective , with the persons who had appeared in the first two acts . One minute before the last curtain , Dick and Sylvia manage to thread their way out of the tangle of scandal and misconception , and satisfy each other as to the disinterested quality of their mutual adoration , falling into each other 's arms just as the curtain starts down .