midnight
They slept all afternoon , and till midnight played stud-poker with the guides . Poker was a serious business to the guides . They did not gossip ; they shuffled the thick greasy cards with a deft ferocity menacing to the `` sports ; '' and Joe Paradise , king of guides , was sarcastic to loiterers who halted the game even to scratch . At midnight , as Paul and he blundered to their cottage over the pungent wet grass , and pine-roots confusing in the darkness , Babbitt rejoiced that he did not have to explain to his wife where he had been all evening . They did not talk much . The nervous loquacity and opinionation of the Zenith Athletic Club dropped from them . But when they did talk they slipped into the naive intimacy of college days .