midnight
... . His thoughts did not violate the soldier 's domain . Quite clean , he was , from that ; yet she had shown him afresh what was in the world . It was nearing midnight ; sentries of the city , still under martial law , ordered him off the streets before he realized passing time ... . And the hours did not bring to his mind the woman of the Block-House , nor anyone of those flaming desert-women who love so fiercely and so fruitlessly ; whose relations with men do not weave , but only bind the selvage of the human fabric ... * * * * * Bedient was glad to get away to sea ... . David Cairns , overtaken in China , had changed a little . It appears that the very best of young men must change when they begin to wear their reputation .