midnight
`` But , '' she said below at her bar , `` he smokes the beautifullest -- smelling cigars , and drinks coffee made in his own way . He 's very particular . '' Which was reckoned to be in Major Waring 's favour . The hour was near midnight when she came into the room , bearing another letter from the Park . She thumped it on the table , ruffling and making that pretence at the controlling of her bosom which precedes a feminine storm . Her indignation was caused by a communication delivered by Dick Curtis , in the parlour underneath , to the effect that Nicodemus Sedgett was not to be heard of in the neighbourhood . Robert laughed at her , and called her Hebrew woman -- eye-for-eye and tooth-for-tooth woman .