three o'clock in the morning
The secret desire of this little actor 's heart was to play Shakespeare ; he had `` Hamlet '' read to him , and pondered how to act it -- all the time that he was flourishing his little cane and making his grimaces ! He had chanced to be on the stage when a fire had broken out , and five or six hundred victims of greed were roasted to death . The actor had pleaded with the people to keep their seats , but all in vain ; and all his life thereafter he went about with this vision of horror in his mind , and haunted by the passionate conviction that he had failed because of his lack of education -- that if only he had been a man of culture , he would have been able to think of something to say to hold those terror-stricken people ! At three o'clock in the morning the performance came to an end , and then there were more refreshments ; and Mrs. Vivie Patton came and sat by him , and they had a nice comfortable gossip . When Mrs. Vivie once got started at talking about people , her tongue ran on like a windmill . There was Reggie Mann , meandering about and simpering at people . Reggie was in his glory at Mrs. de Graffenried 's affairs .