midnight
`` She 's not with you ? '' he exclaimed . `` I hoped she would be . I 've been searching everywhere -- she was n't in the hotel when I got home , and it 's close to midnight . '' I felt unsympathetic , and would n't have cared if Miss Dierdre O'Farrell had flown off on a broomstick , or been kidnapped by a German aviator . My heart , however , was sure that nothing had happened and I suspected that her brother had trumped up an excuse to join us . It vexed me that Brian should show concern .