midnight
Miss Alicia had lived among small economies and could be of great assistance to him . They made lists and added up lines of figures until the fine , huge room and its thousands of volumes melted away . In the great hall , guarded by warriors in armor , the powdered heads of the waiting footmen drooped and nodded while the prices of pounds of butter and sugar and the value of potatoes and flour and nutmegs were balanced with a hectic joy , and the relative significance of dollars and cents and shillings and half-crowns and five-cent pieces caused Miss Alicia a mild delirium . By the time that she had established the facts that a shilling was something like twenty-five cents , a dollar was four and twopence , and twenty-five dollars was something over five pounds , it was past midnight . They heard the clock strike the half-hour , and stopped to stare at each other . Tembarom got up with yet another laugh . `` Say , I must n't keep you up all night , '' he said .