Midnight
Boys and men , girls and women , talked and swore and quarreled and jostled one another in the bad dark court . A lad of about twenty being pushed up against Bet , seized her familiarly by the arm ; she flung him off like a young fury , and , wrapping her mother 's plaid shawl which she wore about her shoulders over her head , ran out into the street . Her father was gone . Midnight was approaching , but the place was gayly lighted , for this was Saturday night , and the women , who could only get what was left of their husbands ' earnings on their return from the public-houses , were eagerly buying and chaffering , and making what preparations they could for the coming Sabbath . No one molested or looked at Bet as she walked rapidly back to Paradise Row . She reached her destination about midnight , to find the whole house in what seemed to her the most awful state of uproar . Shouts and eager voices filled the air ; loud laughter , screams of -- `` Hurrah !