three o'clock
It is after midnight . '' As he walked home , Father Maguire thought of the great change he perceived in his uncle . Father Stafford liked to go to bed at eleven , the very name of St. Thomas seemed to bore him ; fifteen years ago he would sit up till morning . Father Maguire remembered the theological debates , sometimes prolonged till after three o'clock , and the passionate scholiast of Maynooth seemed to him unrecognisable in the esurient Vicar-General , only occasionally interested in theology , at certain hours and when he felt particularly well . He could not reconcile the two ages , his mind not being sufficiently acute to see that after all no one can discuss theology for more than five-and-twenty years without wearying of the subject . The moon was shining among the hills and the mystery of the landscape seemed to aggravate his sensibility , and he asked himself if the guardians of the people should not fling themselves into the forefront of the battle . Men came to preach heresy in his parish -- was he not justified in slitting their drum ?