midnight
Except for the making of money , the whole year of an erected Lakelands , notwithstanding uninterrupted successes , was a blank . Or rather we have to wish it were a blank . The scheme departs : payment for the enlisted servants of it is in prospect . A black agent , not willingly enlisted , yet pointing to proofs of service , refuses payment in ordinary coin ; and we tell him we owe him nothing , that he is not a man of the world , has no understanding of Nature : and still the fellow thumps and alarums at a midnight door we are astonished to find we have in our daylight house . How is it ? Would other men be so sensitive to him ? Victor was appeased by the assurance of his possession of an exceptionally scrupulous conscience ; and he settled the debate by thinking : ` After all , for a man like me , battling incessantly , a kind of Vesuvius , I must have -- ca n't be starved , must be fed -- though , pah !