nearly midnight
He selected a new vaudeville and listened to it with surprising freshness of interest ; but toward eleven o'clock he again began to dread the approaching necessity of going down to the steamer . There was something peculiarly unnerving in the idea of spending the rest of the night in a stifling cabin jammed against the side of a wharf . He left the theatre and strolled across to the Fifth Avenue . It was now nearly midnight and a stream of carriages poured up town from the opera and the theatres . As he stood on the corner watching the familiar spectacle it occurred to him that many of the people driving by him in smart broughams and C-spring landaus were on their way to the Gildermere ball . He remembered Miss Talcott 's note of the morning and wondered if she were in one of the passing carriages ; she had spoken so confidently of meeting him at the ball . What if he should go and take a last look at her ?