midnight
Again the portiere opened . `` Mr. and Mrs. Reginald Van Rock -- Mr. Kennedy Jones -- Miss Trevor , '' announced Blakeman successively . Mrs. Thayor 's fourth dinner party that week had begun . * * * * * As the door closed at midnight upon the last guest , Margaret kissed her father and mother good-night and hurried to her room , leaving the two alone . The dinner had been an ordeal to her -- never before had she seen her father so absorbed . `` You were very brilliant to-night , were you not ? '' exclaimed Alice as soon as she and Thayor were alone .