midnight
`` I appeal to the best poets , Mr. Bolingbroke : nothing can be more absurd than your way of -- '' `` Listen , lively lordlings all ! '' interrupted Emma , pressing with playful vehemence between the disputants ; `` I must be heard , for I have not spoken this half hour , and thus I pronounce -- You both are right , and both are wrong . `` And now , my good friends , had not we better go to rest ? '' said she ; `` for it is past midnight . '' As they took their candles , and went up stairs , the parties continued the battle : Mrs. Bolingbroke brought quotations innumerable to her aid , and in a shrill tone repeated , ``` He might not let even the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly . ' -- ``` pass by me as the idle wind , Which I respect not . ' ``` And let her down the wind to prey at fortune . '