midnight
`` Shall we go upstairs or sit here ? '' asked Lord Ettrick . `` Manders ought to be with us in another half-hour . '' Eric remembered with consternation that he would be expected to stay at least until midnight . There was no escaping it . Five and thirty men , his friends and entertainers , were preparing for a long , happy session ; their chairs were turned at comfortable angles , they had shuffled and sorted themselves into congenial groups , each was at the earliest stage of a long cigar , and they waited on him in turn like an endless series of deputations . `` I 've discussed the nightly takings of a theatre with Ettrick , '' he whispered , when Manders arrived at half-past eleven as vigorous and high-spirited as if he had just got out of bed ; `` the Dardanelles expedition with Gaisford , the plays of Synge with George Oakleigh , ` The Bomb-Shell ' with Vincent Grayle , memories of Jessie Farborough with Deganway , ` The Bomb-Shell ' with Grierson , Ibsen with Harry Greenbank , and ` The Bomb-Shell ' with Donald Butler .