midnight
`` Then there 's the expense , '' said Bob . `` What earthly need is there of a grand regale of oysters , chicken salad , ice-creams , coffee , and champagne , between eleven and twelve o'clock at night , when no one of us would ever think of wanting or taking any such articles upon our stomachs in our own homes ? If we were all of us in the habit of having a regular repast at that hour , it might be well enough to enjoy one with our neighbor ; but the party fare is generally just so much in addition to the honest three meals which we have eaten during the day . Now , to spend from fifty to one , two , or three hundred dollars in giving all our friends an indigestion from a midnight meal seems to me a very poor investment . Yet if we once begin to give the party , we must have everything that is given at the other parties , or wherefore do we live ? And caterers and waiters rack their brains to devise new forms of expense and extravagance ; and when the bill comes in , one is sure to feel that one is paying a great deal of money for a great deal of nonsense . It is in fact worse than nonsense , because our dear friends are , in half the cases , not only no better , but a great deal worse , for what they have eaten . ''