midnight
He had been hearing the divinest singing -- boys with the voices of angels -- and had been taking his supper in a place which duchesses themselves did not disdain to peep at from the sacred recesses of a loge grillee , George Sheldon had told him . But poor country-bred Georgina Halliday would not believe in the duchesses , or the angelic singing boys , or the primitive simplicity of Welsh rarebits . She had a vision of beautiful women , and halls of dazzling light , where there was the mad music of perpetual Post-horn Galops , with a riotous accompaniment of huzzas and the popping of champagne corks -- where the sheen of satin and the glitter of gems bewildered the eye of the beholder . She had seen such a picture once on the stage , and had vaguely associated it with all Tom 's midnight roisterings ever afterwards . The roisterer 's garments were very wet , and it was in vain that his wife and Philip Sheldon entreated him to change them for dry ones , or to go to bed immediately . He stood before the fire relating his innocent adventures , and trying to dispel the cloud from Georgy 's fair young brow ; and , when he did at last consent to go to his room , the dentist shook his head ominously . `` You 'll have a severe cold to-morrow , depend upon it , Tom , and you 'll have yourself to thank for it , '' he said , as he bade the good-tempered reprobate good night .