one o'clock in the morning
She played unusually well , but when , at the close of the piece , she looked around for commendation , from the one for whose ear alone she had played , she saw him across the room , so wholly engrossed with her sister that he probably did not even know when the sound of the piano ceased . Poor Ella ; it was with the saddest heartache she had ever known that she returned from a party which had promised her so much pleasure , and which had given her so much pain . Rose , too , was bitterly disappointed . One by one her old admirers had left her for the society of the `` pauper , '' as she secretly styled Mary , and more than once during the evening had she heard the `` beauty '' and `` grace '' of her rival extolled by those for whose opinion she cared the most ; and when , at one o'clock in the morning , she threw herself exhausted upon the sofa , she declared '' 't was the last party she 'd ever attend . '' Alas , for thee , Rosa , that declaration proved too true ! For more than an hour there had been unbroken silence in the dingy old law office of Mr. Worthington , where Henry Lincoln and William Bender still remained , the one as a practising lawyer and junior partner of the firm , and the other as a student still , for he had not yet dared to offer himself for examination . Study was something which Henry particularly disliked ; and as his mother had trained him with the idea , that labor for him was wholly unnecessary , he had never bestowed a thought on the future , or made an exertion of any kind .