midnight
The air was thick with tobacco-smoke , trays were scattered about , laden with stubs of cigars and ashes , and empty and half-filled glasses were everywhere . Some of the party had already gone , their gaming instinct satisfied for the night , their pockets lighter than when they came ; and the tables where they had sat were in a state of disorder more suggestive of a `` dive '' than of the house of one who lived in Grosvenor Square . No servant came to clear away the things . It was a rule of the establishment that at midnight the household went to bed , and the host and his guests looked after themselves thereafter . The friends of De Lancy Scovel called him `` Cupid , '' because of his cherubic face , but he was more gnome than cherub at heart . Having come into his fortune by being a henchman to abler men than himself , he was almost over-zealous to retain it , knowing that he could never get it again ; yet he was hospitable with the income he had to spend . He was the Beau Brummel of that coterie which laid the foundation of prosperity on the Rand ; and his house was a marvel of order and crude elegance -- save when he had his roulette and poker parties , and then it was the shambles of murdered niceties .