three o'clock in the afternoon
`` I have a trick of being sleepless -- a trick , too , of wandering at night . My own people know it , and bear with me , but I am abashed that you should have found me out . Just tell me -- in one word -- how the ball went ? '' He paused at the foot of the stairs , his hands on his sides , as keenly wide-awake as though it were three o'clock in the afternoon instead of three in the morning . Womanlike , her mood instantly shaped itself to his . `` It went very well , '' she said perversely , putting her satin-slippered foot on the first step . `` There were six hundred people upstairs , and four hundred coachmen and footmen downstairs , according to our man .