midnight
Her father gave her a brief , abstracted nod , in response to her greeting , and went on with his bacon and his Daily Mail ; her stepmother 's forbidding expression checked any attempt at conversation . The children stared at her with a kind of malevolent curiosity ; they knew that a storm had been brewing for her the night before , and longed to know just how thoroughly she had `` caught it . '' Eliza , bringing in singed and belated toast , looked at her with pity , tinged with admiration . Cook and she had been awakened at midnight by what was evidently , in the words of Cook , `` a perfickly ` orrible bust-up , '' and knowing Cecilia to have been its object , Eliza looked at her as one may look who expects to see the scars of battle . Finding none , but receiving instead a cheerful smile , she returned to the kitchen , and reported to Cook that Miss Cecilia was `` nuffink less than a neroine . '' But as that day and the next wore on , Cecilia found it difficult to be cheerful . That she was in disgrace was very evident , Mrs. Rainham said no more about her sins of the night before ; instead , she showed her displeasure by a kind of cold rudeness that gave a subtle insult to her smallest remark .