midnight
And he recognised assorted lights of the `` profession , '' masculine and feminine ; and one or two beautiful meteors that were falling athwart the underworld , leaving fading trails of incandescence in their jewelled wake . The noise began to stun him ; he laughed and talked and sang with the others , distinguishing neither his own voice nor the replies . For the tumult grew as the hour advanced toward midnight , gathering steadily in strength , in license , in abandon . And now , as the minute hands on the big gilded clock twitched nearer and nearer to midnight , the racket became terrific , swelling , roaring into an infernal din as the raucous blast of horns increased in the streets outside and the whistles began to sound over the city from Westchester to the Bay , from Long Island to the Palisades . Sheer noise , stupefying , abominable , incredible , unending , greeted the birth of the New Year ; they were dancing in circles , singing , cheering amid the crash of glasses . Table-cloths , silken gowns , flowers were crushed and trampled under foot ; flushed faces looked into strange faces , laughing ; eyes strange to other eyes smiled ; strange hands exchanged clasps with hands unknown ; the whirl had become a madness . And , suddenly , in its vortex , Neville saw Valerie West .