ten in the evening
The `` club '' is where the bachelor officers eat their meals ; other officers on post often eat there , too , especially in the absence of their families . There are reading and writing rooms at the `` club , '' and other features that make it a somewhat pleasant lounging place for young officers in their few leisure hours . While there is plenty of comfort at an officers ' club there are few in which anything like real luxury is to be found . And , while the civilian may remain at his club until well into the small hours the Army officer , with his next day of arduous duty ahead of him , usually leaves his club between nine and ten in the evening , if not much earlier . Major Tipton then led the young officers to the bachelor house , explaining that he had assigned them quarters upstairs , as they would find them much pleasanter than the downstairs rooms . The two sets of quarters proved to be facing each other , Hal 's on the east side , Noll 's on the west side . Each set consisted of a parlor and bedroom , with bath and dressing-room adjoining .