midnight
`` Yes indeed , it 's true . A speck or two , I must have come in for them on my way down from my office . '' Several people were taking their departure . It was close on midnight . Two footmen were noiselessly removing the empty cups and the plates with cakes . In front of the hearth the ladies had re-formed and , at the same time , narrowed their circle and were chatting more carelessly than before in the languid atmosphere peculiar to the close of a party . The very room was going to sleep , and slowly creeping shadows were cast by its walls .