midnight
At least , at first he thought it was hunger till he remembered that he had just eaten . The hours passed confusedly . He had no consciousness of time . But it must have been late , -- near midnight , -- judging by the fact that there were few persons visible anywhere in the black storm , when he noticed a little figure sitting at the far end of the car . He had not seen the child when she got on , but all was so curious and wild to him that evening -- he himself seemed to himself the most curious and the wildest of all things -- that it was not surprising that he should not have observed the little creature . She was wrapped in a coat so much too large that it had become frayed at the bottom from dragging on the pavement . Her hair hung in unkempt stringiness about her bent shoulders , and her feet were covered with old arctics , many sizes too big , from which the soles hung loose .