midnight
Even the sinister something in the young man 's look had distinction , and there was style in the signs of dissipation in his handsome face which Jeff saw with a hunger to outdo him . Miss Lynde said to Jeff , `` My brother , Mr. Durgin , '' and then she added to the other , `` You ought to ring first , Arthur , and try your key afterward . '' `` The key 's all right , '' said the young man , without paying any attention to Jeff beyond a glance of recognition ; he turned his back , and waited for the door to be opened . His sister suggested , with an amiability which Jeff felt was meant in reparation to him , `` Perhaps a night latch never works before dark -- or very well before midnight . '' The door was opened , and she said to Jeff , with winning entreaty , `` Wo n't you come in , Mr. Durgin ? '' Jeff excused himself , for he perceived that her politeness was not so much an invitation to him as a defiance to her brother ; he gave her credit for no more than it was worth , and he did not wish any the less to get even with her because of it . At dinner , in the absence of the butler , Alan Lynde attacked his sister across the table for letting herself be seen with a jay , who was not only a jay , but a cad , and personally so offensive to most of the college men that he had never got into a decent club or society ; he had been suspended the first year , and if he had not had the densest kind of cheek he would never have come back .