midnight
As she said the words tears started under her blackened eyelashes . If Julian had been taken aback before she spoke the last sentence , he was ten times more astonished now . The whole situation struck him as unexampled , and but for something so passionate in the girl 's manner that it overrode the natural feeling of the moment , his sense of humour must have moved him to a smile . It was strange indeed to sit at midnight under the electric moons of the Monico , and to be passionately condemned for dissipation by a girl with a painted face , dyed hair , and that terribly unmistakable imprint of the streets . But Julian could not smile . Something in Cuckoo 's demeanour , something so vehement and so unconscious as to be not far from dignity , impressed him and took him well beyond the gates of laughter . `` Why -- but you were out in the crowd too , '' he said .