midnight
A good-natured lady in fine , a friend of her mother and a relative of the lady of the gallery , had offered to take her to the party in question and had there fortified her , further , with two or three of those introductions that , at large parties , lead to other things -- that had at any rate , on this occasion , culminated for her in conversation with a tall , fair , slightly unbrushed and rather awkward , but on the whole not dreary , young man . The young man had affected her as detached , as -- it was indeed what he called himself -- awfully at sea , as much more distinct from what surrounded them than any one else appeared to be , and even as probably quite disposed to be making his escape when pulled up to be placed in relation with her . He gave her his word for it indeed , that same evening , that only their meeting had prevented his flight , but that now he saw how sorry he should have been to miss it . This point they had reached by midnight , and though in respect to such remarks everything was in the tone , the tone was by midnight there too . She had had originally her full apprehension of his coerced , certainly of his vague , condition -- full apprehensions often being with her immediate ; then she had had her equal consciousness that , within five minutes , something between them had -- well , she could n't call it anything but _ come . _ It was nothing , but it was somehow everything -- it was that something for each of them had happened . They had found themselves looking at each other straight , and for a longer time on end than was usual even at parties in galleries ; but that , after all , would have been a small affair , if there had n't been something else with it .