midnight
Flushed faces , breaths hot with passion and whisky ... . Pretty girls , cool and sober , dancing with men who held them with drunken lasciviousness ; sober men hating the whisky breaths of the girls ... . On and on , the drunken carnival to maddening music -- the passion , the lust . Both Hugh and Cynthia were drinking , and by midnight both of them were drunk , too drunk any longer to think clearly . As they danced , Hugh was aware of nothing but Cynthia 's body , her firm young body close to his . His blood beat with the pounding of the drums . He held her tighter and tighter -- the gymnasium , the other couples , a swaying mist before his eyes .