one o'clock
in the morning
Why do you bother about the family ? '' Sally burst out . She could not reconcile this young man 's flabby dependence on his family with the enterprise and vigour which he had shown in his dealings with the unspeakable Scrymgeour . Of course , he had been brought up to look on himself as a rich man 's son and appeared to have drifted as such young men are wont to do ; but even so ... `` The whole trouble with you , '' she said , embarking on a subject on which she held strong views , `` is that ... '' Her harangue was interrupted by what -- at the Normandie , at one o'clock in the morning -- practically amounted to a miracle . The front door of the hotel opened , and there entered a young man in evening dress . Such persons were sufficiently rare at the Normandie , which catered principally for the staid and middle-aged , and this youth 's presence was due , if one must pause to explain it , to the fact that , in the middle of his stay at Roville , a disastrous evening at the Casino had so diminished his funds that he had been obliged to make a hurried shift from the Hotel Splendide to the humbler Normandie . His late appearance to-night was caused by the fact that he had been attending a dance at the Splendide , principally in the hope of finding there some kind-hearted friend of his prosperity from whom he might borrow .