noon
Here in her close little room , the suggestion of an alcoholic basis for this generosity obtruded itself , but Rose did n't care . She wished him a merry Christmas and waved him off with a smile . It was now after eight o'clock . Rehearsal was at eight-thirty and she had had nothing to eat since noon . But she stole the time , nevertheless , to tear the wrappings off her `` form '' and gaze on its respectable nakedness for two or three minutes with a contemplative eye . Then , reluctantly -- it was the first time she had left that room with reluctance -- she turned out the light and hurried off to the little lunch-room that lay on the way to the dance-hall . She never again , in the active practise of her profession , knew anything quite like the ensuing seventy-two hours .