one in the morning
Promptly on their arrival at the hotel , Mrs. Ilkington began to run up a telephone bill , notifying friends of her whereabouts ; with the result -LRB- typical of the New York idea -RRB- that within an hour she had engaged herself for a dinner with theatre and supper to follow -- and , of course , had managed to have Eleanor included in the invitation . She was one of those women who live on their nerves and apparently thrive on excitement , ignorant of the meaning of rest save in association with those rest-cure sanatoriums to which they repair for a fortnight semi-annually -- or oftener . Against her protests , then , Eleanor was dragged out in full dress when what she really wanted to do was to eat a light and simple meal and go early to bed . In not unnatural consequence she found herself , when they got home after one in the morning , in a state of nervous disquiet caused by the strain of keeping herself keyed up to the pitch of an animated party . Insomnia stared her in the face with its blind , blank eyes . In the privacy of her own room , she expressed a free opinion of her countrymen , conceiving them all in the guise of fevered , unquiet souls cast in the mould of Mrs. Ilkington . Divesting herself of her dinner-gown , she slipped into a négligée and looked round for a book , meaning to read herself sleepy .