midnight
How they held him ; how they fascinated ; how they soothed with infinite soothing the bitter sorrow , the gaping , stinging wound that had driven him furiously away , all those years before , from the flesh-pots of a modern Babylon ! Had he cared for it all very much then ? ... He wondered , looking full and deep into his hidden memories . Had the lights and the music , the song and dance , the laughing women and reckless men , the midnight orgies and morning headaches , really given him so much pleasure that he must needs fling it all aside with such bitter anger and harsh regret when the thunderbolt fell and the searching dart stabbed him awake ? Outraged , hurt-maddened , he had flung away , as he believed , to outer darkness , and to a joyless , purposeless , colourless life . And he had found ? ... Ah !