midnight
Mrs. Pipkin had an idea that young women in these days did have , and would have , and must have more liberty than was allowed when she was young . The world was being changed very fast . Mrs. Pipkin knew that as well as others . And therefore when Ruby went to the theatre once and again , -- by herself as far as Mrs. Pipkin knew , but probably in company with her lover , -- and did not get home till past midnight , Mrs. Pipkin said very little about it , attributing such novel circumstances to the altered condition of her country . She had not been allowed to go to the theatre with a young man when she had been a girl , -- but that had been in the earlier days of Queen Victoria , fifteen years ago , before the new dispensation had come . Ruby had never yet told the name of her lover to Mrs. Pipkin , having answered all inquiries by saying that she was all right . Sir Felix 's name had never even been mentioned in Islington till Paul Montague had mentioned it .