midnight
He is a notorious profligate ; gambling is his food and drink , debauchery his glory and his ruin . Would you be that father ? Go back to your honest sons and look in their faces ; throw the bright locks from their brows , and bless God that there the angel triumphs over the brute ; be even thankful that you are not burdened with corrupt gold , for their sakes ; say not again that you suffer more than your neighbour . Do you toil , young girl , from daylight to midnight , while the little sums eked out with frowns and reluctant fingers , hardly suffice to provide for you food and raiment ? And the wife of your rich employer , who passes stranger-like by you , may sit at her marble toilet-table for hours , and retouch the faded brow of beauty before a gilded mirror ; may lounge at her palace window till she is weary of gazing , and being gazed at ; do you envy your wealthier neighbour , young sewing-girl ? Go to her boudoir , where pictures and statuary , silken hangings and perfumes delight every sense , and where costly robes are flung around with a profusion that betokens lavish expenditure ; ask her which she deems happiest , and she will point her jewelled finger towards you , and -- if she speaks with candour -- tell you that for your single soul and free spirits , she would barter all her riches . The opera , where night after night the wealth of glorious voices is flung upon the air till its every vibration is melody , and the spirit drinks it in as it would the incense of rare flowers , is to her not so exquisite a luxury as the choice songs , warbled in a concert room , to which you may listen but few times in the year ; such pleasure palls in repetition , on the common mind , for nature 's favourites are among the poor , and gold , with all its magical power , can never attune the ear to music , nor the taste to an appreciation of that which is truly beautiful in nature or art .