midnight
It was a dismal , sodden morning , with heavy clouds banked in the western sky . Rain had sloshed down since midnight so that the gutter in front of me was a turbid little river . A chill wind swept across the city and penetrated to the marrow . From the summit of the hill , three blocks above me , my car was sliding down , but I clung to the curb to postpone until the last moment a plunge into the flowing street . Since I was five-and-twenty , in tip-top health , and Irish by descent , I whistled while the windswept drops splashed the shine from my shoes .