midday
They were men of very distinct personality ; a few celebrated , and nearly all notorious . They represented a Bohemianism -- if such it could be called -- less innocent than my later experiences . I remember , however , one handsome young fellow whom I used to meet occasionally on the staircase , who captured my youthful fancy . I met him only at midday , as he did not rise till late , and this fact , with a certain scrupulous elegance and neatness in his dress , ought to have made me suspect that he was a gambler . In my inexperience it only invested him with a certain romantic mystery . One morning as I was going out to my very early breakfast at a cheap Italian cafe on Long Wharf , I was surprised to find him also descending the staircase . He was scrupulously dressed even at that early hour , but I was struck by the fact that he was all in black , and his slight figure , buttoned to the throat in a tightly fitting frock coat , gave , I fancied , a singular melancholy to his pale Southern face .