midnight
he had enough to put up with as it was . Sometimes he read out the horses ' names and asked her which she thought would win , which seemed to her a likely name . But she begged of him not to ask her ; they had many quarrels on this subject , but in the end he understood that it was not fair to ask her . Sometimes Stack and Journeyman came in , and they argued about weights and distances , until midnight ; old John came to see them , and every day he had heard some new tip . It often rose to Esther 's lips to tell William to back his fancy and have done with it ; she could see that these discussions only fatigued him , that he was no nearer to the truth now than he was a fortnight ago . Meanwhile the horse he had thought of backing had gone up in the betting . But he said that he must be very careful .