nearly
midnight
Yum ! '' `` Come now , come now , my child . Let us keep from the sin of gluttony , on the night of the Nativity especially ... . Be quick and light the wax-tapers and ring the first bell for the mass ; for it 's nearly midnight and we must not be behind time . '' This conversation took place on a Christmas night in the year of grace one thousand six hundred and something , between the Reverend Dom Balaguère -LRB- formerly Prior of the Barnabites , now paid chaplain of the Lords of Trinquelague -RRB- , and his little clerk Garrigou , or at least him whom he took for his little clerk Garrigou , for you must know that the devil had on that night assumed the round face and soft features of the young sacristan , in order the more effectually to lead the reverend father into temptation , and make him commit the dreadful sin of gluttony . Well then , while the supposed Garrigou -LRB- hum ! -RRB- was with all his might making the bells of the baronial chapel chime out , his reverence was putting on his chasuble in the little sacristy of the château ; and with his mind already agitated by all these gastronomic descriptions , he kept saying to himself as he was robing : `` Roasted turkeys , ... golden carp , ... trout as big as that !