midnight
It is doubtful whether the taste for luxury , once acquired , is ever wholly lost , even though it may be temporarily cast aside ; and Sylvia was too young and too human , as well as too healthy and happy again , not to enjoy herself very much , indeed . For nearly a month she found each day so full and so delightful as it came , that she had no time to be lonely , and no thought of going away ; but gradually she came to a realization of the fact that the days were _ too _ full ; that there were no opportunities for resting and reading and `` thinking things over '' ; that the quiet little dinners and luncheons of four and six , given in her honor , were gradually but surely becoming larger , more formal and more elaborate ; that her circle of callers was no longer confined to her most intimate friends ; that her telephone rang in and out of season ; that the city was growing hot and dusty and tawdry , and that she herself was getting tired and nervous again . And when she waked one morning at eleven o'clock , after being up most of the night before , her head aching , her whole being weary and confused , it needed neither the insistent and disagreeable memory of a little incident of the previous evening , nor the letter from Austin that her maid brought in on her breakfast-tray , to make her realize that the tinsel of her gayety was getting tarnished . * * * * * DEAREST -LRB- the letter ran -RRB- : It is midnight , and -- as you know -- I am always up at five , but I must send you just a few words before I go to bed , for these last two days have been so full that it has seemed to be impossible to find a moment in which to write you . `` Business is rushing '' at the Gray Homestead these days , and everything going finely . The chickens and ducklings are all coming along well -- about four hundred of them -- and we 've had three beautiful new heifer calves this week . Peter is beside himself with joy , for they 're all Holsteins .