midnight
`` I like this food , '' she remarked at last , `` I like it better than Hester 's . '' Roger grew literally warm with satisfaction . He was still smiling when she spooned out a great mouthful of the delicate ice before her and under his amazed eyes set her teeth in it . The horror of that humiliating scene woke him , years afterward , through more than one clammy midnight . In one second the peaceful dining-room was a chattering , howling reign of terror . For Margarita , with a choking cry of rage and anguish , threw the ice with terrible precision into the bland face of the waiter who had brought it ; threw her glass of water with an equal accuracy into the wide-open eyes of the head waiter , who appeared instantly ; threw Roger 's wine-glass full into his own horrified face as he rose to catch her death-dealing hand , and lifting with the magnificent single-armed sweep of a Greek war-goddess her chair from behind her , stood facing them , glaring silently , a slate-eyed Pallas gloriously at bay ! The red wine poured down Roger 's face like blood ; the force of the blow nearly stunned him , but by a supreme effort he bit furiously at his tongue and the pain steadied him .