two o'clock in the morning
` No , ' Peterkin said , with a shake of the head . ` My Bill is a little shaver , eight or nine years old ; too young to go from home , but ' -- and he lowered his voice : a little -- ` I do n't mind saying that if there should be a chance , I 'd like the post-office fust-rate . It would be a kind of hist , you know , to see my name in print , Captain Joseph Peterkin , P.M. ' Here the conversation ended , and the aspirant for the post-office , who had tired himself out , stepped aside and gave place to others who were anxious to renew their acquaintance with Arthur . It was between one and two o'clock in the morning when the party finally broke up , and , as the Peterkins had been the first to arrive , so they were the last to leave , and Mrs. Peterkin found herself again in the gentlemen 's dressing-room , looking after her wraps . But they were not there , and after a vain and anxious search she said to her husband : ` Joe , somebody has stole my things , and 't was my Indian shawl , too , and gold-headed pin , with the little diamond . ' Mrs. Tracy was at once summoned to the scene , and the missing wraps were found in the ladies ' room , where Harold had carried them , but the gold-headed shawl-pin was gone and could not be found . Lucy , the girl in attendance , said , when questioned , that she knew nothing of the pin or Mrs. Peterkin 's wraps either , except that on first going up to the room after the lady 's arrival , she found Harold Hastings fumbling them over , and that she sent him out with a sharp reprimand .