midnight
The stern mental discipline necessary to do this latter would , he hoped , come in time . So he dined unwarily at home , and was , in consequence , seized upon by his father , who sent him to the opera , as a substitute for himself , with his mother and sisters , while he went off delightedly to his club to play whist . Travers did not care for the opera , and sat in the back of the box and dozed , and wondered moodily what so many nice men saw in his sisters to make them want to talk to them . It was midnight , and just as he had tumbled into bed , when the nature of his original engagement came back to him , and his anger and disappointment were so intense that he kicked the clothes over the foot of his bedstead . As for Van Bibber , he knew his friend too well to wait for him , and occupied a box at the People 's Theatre in solitary state , and from its depths gurgled with delight whenever the Boy Actor escaped being run over by a real locomotive , or in turn rescued the stout heroine from six red shirted cowboys . There were quite as many sudden deaths and lofty sentiments as he had expected , and he left the theatre with the pleased satisfaction of an evening well spent and with a pitying sympathy for Travers who had missed it . The night was pleasant and filled with the softness of early spring , and Van Bibber turned down the Bowery with a cigar between his teeth and no determined purpose except the one that he did not intend to go to bed .