midnight
I produced a perfect work of art . I took the dishes , the plates , the pans , and the jars , and arranged the different colours ; and I devised a wonderful picture of still life , with subtle scales of tints leading up to brilliant flashes of colour . The red tongues seemed to thrust themselves out like greedy flames , and the black-puddings , surrounded by pale sausages , suggested a dark night fraught with terrible indigestion . I had produced , you see , a picture symbolical of the gluttony of Christmas Eve , when people meet and sup -- the midnight feasting , the ravenous gorging of stomachs void and faint after all the singing of hymns . -LSB- * -RSB- At the top of everything a huge turkey exhibited its white breast , marbled blackly by the truffles showing through its skin . It was something barbaric and superb , suggesting a paunch amidst a halo of glory ; but there was such a cutting , sarcastic touch about it all that people crowded to the window , alarmed by the fierce flare of the shop-front . When my aunt Lisa came back from the kitchen she was quite frightened , and thought I 'd set the fat in the shop on fire ; and she considered the appearance of the turkey so indelicate that she turned me out of the place while Auguste re-arranged the window after his own idiotic fashion .