midnight
`` Do you join them ? '' `` Why , it would be delightful , Willoughby , but it happens I 've got a lot of powder I want to let off , and so I 've an idea of shouldering my gun along the sea-coast and shooting gulls : which 'll be a harmless form of committing patricide and matricide and fratricide -- for there 's my family , and I come of it ! -- the gull ! And I 've to talk lively to Mrs. Mountstuart for something like a matter of twelve hours , calculating that she goes to bed at midnight : and I would n't bet on it ; such is the energy of ladies of that age ! '' Willoughby scorned the man who could not conceal a blow , even though he joked over his discomfiture . `` Gull ! '' he muttered .