one minute past one o'clock
`` Well , of all -- '' He turned appealingly to Sally . '' _ What _ did I tell you ? '' Fickle-minded fortune favoured Mr. Savage 's belated application for additional sleeping-car accommodation : somebody turned back a reservation only ten minutes or so before train-time , in consequence of which Mrs. Standish and Miss Manvers enjoyed adjoining compartments of luxury , while Mr. Savage contented himself with less pretentious quarters farther aft . Thus it was that at one minute past one o'clock , when a preternaturally self-respecting porter dispassionately ascertained that nothing more would be required of him till morning and shut himself out of her presence , the girl subsided upon the edge of a bed of such sybaritic character as amply to warrant the designation _ de luxe _ , and , flushed and trembling with excitement -LRB- now that she dared once again to be her natural self -RRB- and with all incredulity appropriate to the circumstances , stared at the young woman who blankly stared back from a long mirror framed in the door . It was truly a bit difficult to identify that modishly dressed and brilliantly animated young person with S. Manvers of the Hardware Notions in Huckster 's Bargain Basement , while reason tottered and common sense tittered when invited to credit the chain of accidents responsible for the transformation . Strange world of magic romance , this , into which she had stumbled over the threshold of a venial misdemeanour ! Who now would dare contend that life was ever sordid , grim , and cruel , indigestible from soup to savoury ?