midnight
Cynthia and he would make merry over the feast . The magnetism that had never yet failed him in affairs of the heart would surely prove potent now at this real crisis in his life . Marriage to a rich woman could alone snatch him from the social abyss , and the prospect became doubly alluring when it took the guise of Cynthia . He would restore her to a disconsolate chaperon some time before midnight , and he was cynic enough to admit that if he had not then succeeded in winning her esteem by his chivalry , his unobtrusive tenderness , his devoted attentions -- above all , by his flow of interesting talk and well-turned epigram -- the fault would be his own , and not attributable to adverse conditions . It was not surprising , therefore , that he failed to choke back the curse quick risen to his lips when the throb of the Mercury 's engine came over the crest of the hill . Never was mailed dragon more terrible to the beholder , even in the days of knight-errantry . In an instant his well-conceived project had gone by the board .