midnight
So , on Christmas eve , instead of Hallam Hall and a Yule log , I was in a gale plunging and pitching off the coast of Ireland , and the only log on board was the one the captain kept to himself . I sat in the smoking-room , depressed and cross , and it must have been on the principle that misery loves company that I foregathered with Talbot , or rather that Talbot foregathered with me . Certainty , under happier conditions and in haunts of men more crowded , the open-faced manner in which he forced himself upon me would have put me on my guard . But , either out of deference to the holiday spirit , as manifested in the fictitious gayety of our few fellow-passengers , or because the young man in a knowing , impertinent way was most amusing , I listened to him from dinner time until midnight , when the chief officer , hung with snow and icicles , was blown in from the deck and wished all a merry Christmas . Even after they unmasked Talbot I had neither the heart nor the inclination to turn him down . Indeed , had not some of the passengers testified that I belonged to a different profession , the smoking-room crowd would have quarantined me as his accomplice . On the first night I met him I was not certain whether he was English or giving an imitation .