midnight
Fanny remarked , in reference to the general prospect , with a gaiety that announced itself as heedless of criticism , to each member of the party in turn ; sustaining and bracing herself by her emphasis , pushed even to an amiable cynicism , of the confident view of these punctualities of the Assinghams . The ground she could best occupy , to her sense , was that of her being moved , as in this connexion she had always been moved , by the admitted grossness of her avidity , the way the hospitality of the Ververs met her convenience and ministered to her ease , destitute as the Colonel had kept her , from the first , of any rustic retreat , any leafy bower of her own , any fixed base for the stale season now at hand . She had explained at home , she had repeatedly reexplained , the terms of her dilemma , the real difficulty of her , or -- as she now put it -- of their position . When the pair could do nothing else , in Cadogan Place , they could still talk of marvellous little Maggie , and of the charm , the sinister charm , of their having to hold their breath to watch her ; a topic the momentous midnight discussion at which we have been present was so far from having exhausted . It came up , irrepressibly , at all private hours ; they had planted it there between them , and it grew , from day to day , in a manner to make their sense of responsibility almost yield to their sense of fascination . Mrs. Assingham declared at such moments that in the interest of this admirable young thing -- to whom , she also declared , she had quite `` come over '' -- she was ready to pass with all the world else , even with the Prince himself , the object , inconsequently , as well , of her continued , her explicitly shameless appreciation , for a vulgar , indelicate , pestilential woman , showing her true character in an abandoned old age . The Colonel 's confessed attention had been enlisted , we have seen , as never yet , under pressure from his wife , by any guaranteed imbroglio ; but this , she could assure him she perfectly knew , was not a bit because he was sorry for her , or touched by what she had let herself in for , but because , when once they had been opened , he could n't keep his eyes from resting complacently , resting almost intelligently , on the Princess .