midnight
We were men of all parties and very various experiences , and our object was to discuss the welfare of the Empire in a disinterested spirit . We dined monthly at the Mermaid in Westminster , and for a couple of years we kept up an average attendance of ten out of fourteen . The dinner-time was given up to desultory conversation , and it is odd how warm and good the social atmosphere of that little gathering became as time went on ; then over the dessert , so soon as the waiters had swept away the crumbs and ceased to fret us , one of us would open with perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes ' exposition of some specially prepared question , and after him we would deliver ourselves in turn , each for three or four minutes . When every one present had spoken once talk became general again , and it was rare we emerged upon Hendon Street before midnight . Sometimes , as my house was conveniently near , a knot of men would come home with me and go on talking and smoking in my dining-room until two or three . We had Fred Neal , that wild Irish journalist , among us towards the end , and his stupendous flow of words materially prolonged our closing discussions and made our continuance impossible . I learned very much and very many things at those dinners , but more particularly did I become familiarised with the habits of mind of such men as Neal , Crupp , Gane , and the one or two other New Imperialists who belonged to us .