ten o'clock
When she reached Forty-first Street she turned east , and went past the familiar door of the opera house . It was a special performance , and the waiting line stretched from the box office down the street , and around the corner , into the dark . They would only be able to buy standing room , these patient happy music lovers who grew weary and cold waiting for their treat , and even standing , they would be behind an immovable crowd , they would catch only occasional glimpses of the stage . But Norma told herself that she would rather be in that line , than yawningly deciding , as she had so often seen Annie decide , that she would perhaps rustle into the box at ten o'clock for the third act -- although it was rather a bore . She flitted near enough to see the general stir , and to see once more the sign `` No Footmen Allowed in This Lobby , '' and then , smiling at the old memories , she slipped away into the darkness , drinking in insatiably the intimate friendliness of the big city and the spring night . It was ten o'clock the next day , a silent gray day , when Aunt Kate let herself into the apartment , and `` let out , '' to use her own phrase , a startled exclamation at finding her young daughter-in-law deeply asleep in her bed . Norma , a vision of cloudy dark tumbled hair and beautiful sleepy blue eyes , half-strangled the older woman in a rapturous embrace , and explained that she had come home the night before , and eaten the chicken stew , and perhaps overslept -- at any rate would love some coffee .