nearly midnight
It got into a settled habit with him at last to leave Barndale nightly at his comedy , and to return to the house-boat at an hour little short of midnight . He would find Barndale still at work writing by the light of a lamp grown dim with incrustations of self-immolated insects . Moths fluttered to this light in incredible numbers , and literal thousands of lives were thus sacrificed nightly at the drama 's shrine . It was nearly midnight , and as black as a wolfs mouth , when Leland sculled up from the ` Swan ' to spend his last night but one aboard the house-boat . ` Billy , old man , ' he cried , bursting in suddenly ; ` look here ! Ai n't I in for it now ? Read this ! '