midnight
If there was any drama at all it was wholly in his own consciousness . But the thing was certainly impressive in its way . He thought it a great piece of luck that he should come upon it by chance , and so long after he had forgotten about it that he was surprised to recognize it for the spectacle he had often promised himself the pleasure of seeing . Pleasure is the right word ; for pleasure of the painful sort that all hedonists will easily imagine was what he expected to get from it ; though upon the face of it there seems no reason why a man should delight to see his fellow-men waiting in the winter street for the midnight dole of bread which must in some cases be their only meal from the last midnight to the next midnight . But the mere thought of it gave him pleasure , and the sight of it , from the very first instant . He was proud of knowing just what it was at once , with the sort of pride which one has in knowing an earthquake , though one has never felt one before . He saw the double file of men stretching up one street , and stretching down the other from the corner of the bakery where the loaves were to be given out on the stroke of twelve , and he hugged himself in a luxurious content with his perspicacity .