midnight
And in the middle of it all , Mr. Smith found time to say to Billy , the desk clerk : `` Take the cash registers out of the caff and the Rats ' Cooler and start counting up the books . '' And Billy said : `` Will I write the letters for the palms and the tables and the stuff to go back ? '' And Mr. Smith said : `` Get 'em written right away . '' So all evening the laughter and the chatter and the congratulations went on , and it was n't till long after midnight that Mr. Smith was able to join Billy in the private room behind the `` rotunda . '' Even when he did , there was a quiet and a dignity about his manner that had never been there before . I think it must have been the new halo of the Conservative candidacy that already radiated from his brow . It was , I imagine , at this very moment that Mr. Smith first realised that the hotel business formed the natural and proper threshold of the national legislature .