about ten o’clock at night
For Corydon 's ancestors , as far back as documents could trace , had been members of that class . They had left her the frail and beautiful body , conspicuously useless and dependent ; they had left her all the leisure-class impulses and cravings , all the leisure-class impotences and futilities to contend with . They had taught her nothing about cooking , nothing about sewing , nothing about babies , nothing about money ; they had taught her only the leisure-class dream of `` love in a cottage '' -- and she had run away with a poor poet to try it out ! The depth of these instincts in Corydon was amusingly illustrated by the fact that she always woke up dull and discouraged , and was seldom really herself until afternoon ; and that along about ten o'clock at night , when for the sake of her health she should have been going to bed , she would be laughing , talking , singing , ablaze with interest and excitement . Thyrsis would point this out to her , and please himself by picturing the role which she should have been filling -- wearing an empire gown and a rope or two of rubies , and presiding in an opera-box or a _ salon _ . Corydon would repudiate all this with indignation ; but all the same she never escaped from the phrases of Veblen -- she remained his `` leisure-class wife '' from that day forth . Not so very long afterwards they came upon Ibsen 's `` Hedda Gabler '' ; and Thyrsis shuddered to observe that of all the heroines in the world 's literature , that was the one which most appealed to her .