midnight
At this juncture he was annoyed to miss his friend Lysias , for he wished to avoid offending the queen ; and the Corinthian , who at this moment was doubtless occupied in some perfectly useless manner , was as clever in inventing plausible excuses as he himself was dull in such matters . He hastily wrote a few lines to the friend who shared his tent , requesting him to inform the king that he had been prevented by urgent business from appearing among his guests that evening ; then he threw on his cloak , put on his travelling-hat which shaded his face , and proceeded on foot and without any servant to the harbor , with his letter in one hand and a staff in the other . The soldiers and civic guards which filled the courts of the palace , taking him for a messenger , did not challenge him as he walked swiftly and firmly on , and so , without being detained or recognized , he reached the inn by the harbor , where he was forced to wait an hour before the messenger came home from the gay strangers ' quarter where he had gone to amuse himself . He had a great deal to talk of with this man , who was to set out next morning for Alexandria and Rome ; but Publius hardly gave himself the necessary time , for he meant to start for the meeting place in the Necropolis indicated by Klea , and well-known to himself , a full hour before midnight , although he knew that be could reach his destination in a very much shorter time . The sun seems to move too slowly to those who long and wait , and a planet would be more likely to fail in punctuality than a lover when called by love . In order to avoid observation he did not take a chariot but a strong mule which the host of the inn lent him with pleasure ; for the Roman was so full of happy excitement in the hope of meeting Klea that he had slipped a gold piece into the small , lightly-closed fingers of the innkeeper 's pretty child , which lay asleep on a bench by the side of the table , besides paying double as much for the country wine he had drunk as if it had been fine Falernian and without asking for his reckoning . The host looked at him in astonishment when , finally , he sprang with a grand leap on to the back of the tall beast , without laying his hand on it ; and it seemed even to Publius himself as though he had never since boyhood felt so fresh , so extravagantly happy as at this moment .