midnight
Pappy might say what he liked , but _ she _ would n't be bothered with a boy like that ! And there was Ned Cloherty -- -LRB- this was the medical student -RRB- -- that she had as good as asked to come -- and what could she say to him now , she wondered ? So Tishy sulked , and resented the Hidden Hand , that so inevitably linked her with the owner of Coppinger 's Court , as much as did that man of property himself . The evening wore on ; with romping , with screaming , with enormous consumption of various foods , and with an ever-heightening temperature , that was specially noticeable among those seniors who had not disdained the brew of punch that had coincided with the announcement of midnight , made , with maddening deliberation , by Mrs. Mangan 's cuckoo-clock . The usual delirium of cracker-head-dresses had befallen the company . Larry , decorated with a dunce 's cap , placed upon his yellow head by a jovial matron , found himself fated , by a final effort of penalising fancy on the part of another matron , to select `` a young lady , '' to conduct her to the topmost step of the staircase , and there , on his knees , to kiss either her shoe-buckle or her lips ; `` whichever he likes best ! '' decreed the matron , archly .