midnight
Certainly Miss Grosvenor , who had not enjoyed half Dawn 's educational advantages , did not as glaringly flout syntax , and slang was not so conspicuous in her vocabulary . She and Ernest got on so well that none but my practised eyes could detect that as the evening advanced his brown ones occasionally wandered towards the entrance door , which showed that much as Miss Grosvenor had got him out of his shell , she had not obliterated Dawn . That young lady arrived at about a quarter to ten , and we started homewards , determining to go a long way round , first by way of the Grosvenor 's vehicle road to town , by this gaining the public highway , along which we would walk to the entrance to grandma 's demesne . This was preferable to a short-cut and rolling under the barbed-wire fencing in the long grass sopping with dew , which at midnight or thereabouts would stiffen with the soft frosts of this region that would flee before the sun next morning . Dawn 's cheeks were scarlet from rowing on the river with `` Dora '' Eweword , and she spoke of her jaunt as soon as we got outside , apparently pregnant with the knowledge innate in the dullest of her sex , that the most efficacious way of giving impetus to the love of one lover is to have another . This , however , is another art which , like good cooking , must be `` done to the turn , '' and in this instance there was danger of it being done too soon , as Ernest 's amour had not taken firm root yet ; and a man , unless he be either of gigantic pluck or no honour at all , will not hurry to interfere with the secured property of another man . They chatted in a desultory fashion while I manoeuvred to relieve them of my presence .