midnight
They were honest , thrifty , clean , and their only fault -- that of chattering to one another like magpies -- was to Vanderlyn an agreeable proof that they led a life quite independent of his own . Never had he been more glad to know that this was so than to-night , for they greeted his return home with the easy indifference , and real pleasure , very unlike the surface respect and ill-concealed resentment with which a master 's unexpected appearance would have been received by a couple of more cosmopolitan servitors . With nerves strung up to their highest tension , forcing himself only to think of the present , Vanderlyn put on his evening clothes . It was still wanting some minutes to midnight when he left the Rue de Rivoli for the Boulevard de la Madeleine . A few moments later he was at the door of the club where he was sure of finding , even at this time of night , plenty of friends and acquaintances who would be able to testify , in the very unlikely event of its being desirable that they should do so , to the fact that he had been there that evening . * * * * * L'Union is the most interesting , as it is in a certain sense the most exclusive , of Paris clubs . Founded in memory of the hospitality shown by the English gentry to the French émigrées , during the Revolution , this , the most old-fashioned of Paris clubs , impales the Royal arms of France , that is , the old fleur-de-lys , with those of England .