ten o'clock
She felt that one word of commendation from Mary would have been worth more than all the praise she had received from admiring friends . But Mary was as stony and implacable as ever , giving no sign of the surrender which Constance Stevens had unconsciously nipped in the bud . Just how Mary spent that particular Thanksgiving Day Marjorie did not learn until long afterward . She knew only that Mary had left the house directly after dinner , merely stating that she intended making several calls , and was seen no more until ten o'clock that night , when she flitted into the house like a ghost and vanished up the stairs to her own room . After Thanksgiving , basket ball echoes died out in the growing murmur of coming Christmas joys , and like every young girl , Marjorie grew impatient and enthusiastic over her holiday plans . She did not chatter them as freely to General and Captain when at table as had been her custom each year in the happy days when only they three had been together . As her formerly lovable self , Marjorie would have felt no reserve in Mary 's presence , but this strange , new Mary with her white , immobile face and indifferent eyes , chilled her and killed her desire to exchange the usual gay badinage with her General , which had always made meal-time a merry occasion .