eleven o'clock
The time came , in the month of August , when he engaged additional servants to assist Lee Sing and dared a house party in his Mill Valley bungalow . Lilian , her mother and brother , and half a dozen mutual friends , were the guests . For two days and nights all went well . And on the third night , playing bridge till eleven o'clock , he had reason to be proud of himself . His restlessness fully hid , but as luck would have it , Lilian Gersdale was his opponent on his right . She was a frail delicate flower of a woman , and in his night-mood her very frailty incensed him . Not that he loved her less , but that he felt almost irresistibly impelled to reach out and paw and maul her .