six o'clock
`` Wait ! '' was the gloomy watchword of `` The Rose of America '' chorus . The rehearsal passed off without event . It lasted until six o'clock , when Jill , the Cherub , and two or three of the other girls went to snatch a hasty dinner before returning to the theatre to make up . It was not a cheerful meal . Reaction had set in after the overexertion of the previous night , and it was too early for first-night excitement to take its place . Everybody , even the Cherub , whose spirits seldom failed her , was depressed , and the idea of an overhanging doom had grown .