midnight
`` She 'll be an awful wet blanket , '' some one said , frowning ; and some one else said , `` She 's accepted because she wo n't let him out at night , alone ! '' -RRB- When the heterogeneous household gathered in the dining room , and corks popped and jokes were made , Eleanor and Maurice were there ; he , watching the other people eat and drink and saying almost nothing ; she , talking nervously and trying hard to be slangy about astronomy . Once he looked at her with faint interest -- for she was so evidently `` trying '' ! At midnight they all toiled up four flights of stairs from the basement to the garret , where , with proper squeamishness on the part of the ladies , and much gallantry of pushing and pulling on the part of the gentlemen , and all sorts of awkwardnesses and displaying of legs , they climbed a ladder and got out through the scuttle on to the flat roof . Then came the calculating of minutes , and facetiousness as to other people 's watches and directions as to what one might expect to see . `` It 'll look like a bite out of a cookie , when it begins , '' the bond salesman said ; and Miss Ladd tittered , and said what the ladies wanted to see was the man in the moon ! Maurice , intolerably irked , had moved across to the parapet and was staring out over the city .