about
midnight
A dangerous courtesy marked his manners . Later , his smile became crooked , the left side of his mouth slanting upward , and Quicksand got ready to stand from under . At this stage Calliope generally began to drink . Finally , about midnight , he was seen going homeward , saluting those whom he met with exaggerated but inoffensive courtesy . Not yet was Calliope 's melancholy at the danger point . He would seat himself at the window of the room he occupied over Silvester 's tonsorial parlours and there chant lugubrious and tuneless ballads until morning , accompanying the noises by appropriate maltreatment of a jangling guitar . More magnanimous than Nero , he would thus give musical warning of the forthcoming municipal upheaval that Quicksand was scheduled to endure .