midnight
Now suddenly I wanted to go back upon all these determinations . I began to demand in the intellectual slang of the time `` more actuality , '' and to amaze my father with talk about empire makers and the greatness of Lord Strathcona and Cecil Rhodes . Why , I asked , should n't I travel for a year in search of opportunity ? At Oxford I had made acquaintance with a son of Pramley 's , the big Mexican and Borneo man , and to him I wrote , apropos of a half-forgotten midnight talk in the rooms of some common friend . He wrote back with the suggestion that I should go and talk to his father , and I tore myself away from Mary and went up to see that great exploiter of undeveloped possibilities and have one of the most illuminating and humiliating conversations in the world . He was , I remember , a little pale-complexioned , slow-speaking man with a humorous blue eye , a faint , just perceptible northern accent and a trick of keeping silent for a moment after you had finished speaking , and he talked to me as one might talk to a child of eight who wanted to know how one could become a commander-in-chief . His son had evidently emphasized my Union reputation , and he would have been quite willing , I perceived , to give me employment if I had displayed the slightest intelligence or ability in any utilizable direction .