midnight
After dinner Miss Hassett-Bean burst into tears because she was alone in the world owing to the marmoset 's death from seasickness ; and now that she was growing old nobody cared to talk to her . I argued that people were shy because she was more important than they , and had a reputation for satire . It took half an hour for the lady 's nose to go from red to pink -LRB- I think she had papier poudré in her handkerchief -RRB- ; and then I was obliged to walk on the beach with Miss Enid Biddell to keep Mr. Watts from proposing . As Snell relieved me from sentry duty , I was called by Kruger to discuss certain details of next morning 's start for Cairo ; and at midnight , when I crawled to my room a shattered wreck , the letters were still unread . `` I 'm incapable of caring now , '' I groaned , `` what has happened to any of them . If an earthquake has swallowed up our mountain , and Anthony 's married Monny , and Brigit 's been abducted , or vice versa , and Miss Guest has gone off with the jewels , it will leave me calm . '' That was the spirit in which I tossed up a coin to see which letter to read first .