midnight before
`` But you do n't understand -- '' `` Can you tell me -- make me understand ? '' After a long pause , she told him once more , and very sadly : `` No . '' Though it had been nearly eight when they entered the restaurant , it was something after eleven before Lanyard called for his bill . `` We 've plenty of time , '' he had explained ; `` it 'll be midnight before we can move . The gentle art of house-breaking has its technique , you know , its professional ethics : we ca n't well violate the privacy of Madame Omber 's strong-box before the caretakers on the premises are sound asleep . It is n't _ done _ , you know , it is n't class , to go burglarizing when decent , law-abiding folk are wide-awake ... . Meantime we 're better off here than trapezing the streets ... '' It 's a silent web of side ways and a gloomy one by night that backs up north of Les Halles : old Paris , taciturn and sombre , steeped in its memories of grim romance .