midnight
Besides her usual social activities , she rewrote and finished her new story . It seemed to her even better than the one in the Cosmopolitan Magazine . `` This will surely be taken , '' Pauline thought with a little sigh of regret , `` and that means the end of my year of adventures -- '' She had determined on this course the night after the accident . It was after midnight , and Pauline was trying to marshal the exciting recollections of the day into the orderly mental procession that leads to sleep . Very faintly she heard what sounded like the music of a distant mandolin . Pauline knew it was Harry , went to the open window and looked down on the dark lawn . There he was playing with a bit of straw instead of a pick that his music might not disturb the sleepers in the house .