midnight
There were the usual number of very old people , who vowed the dancing was only a shuffling walk , not the merry movement they had practised half a century ago ; and there were lack-a-daisical young gentlemen , with waistcoats variegated as a hearth-rug , and magnificent breast-pins like miniature pokers , who lounged and lolled about , as though youth were the most embarrassing and wearying infliction mortality was heir to . There were , besides , all the varieties of the class young lady , as seen in every land where muslin is sold , and white shoes are manufactured . There was the slight young lady , who floated about with her gauzy dress daintily pinched in two ; then there was the short and dumpling young lady , who danced with a duck in her gait ; and there were a large proportion of the flouncing , flaunting kind , who took the figures of the quadrille by storm , and went at the `` right and left '' as if they were escaping from a fire ; and there was Mrs. Davis herself , in a spangled toque and red shoes , pottering about from place to place , with a terrible eagerness to be agreeable and fashionable at the same time . It was , I have said , nigh midnight as I stood at the half-open door , watching the animated and amusing scene within , when Mrs. Davis , catching sight of me , and doubtless for the purpose of displaying my specious livery , ordered me to open a window , or close a shutter , or something of like importance . I had scarcely performed the service , when a kind of half titter through the room made me look round , and , to my unspeakable horror , I beheld , in the centre of the room , Town-Major McCan , the most passionate little man in Quebec , making his obeisances to Mrs. Davis , while a circle around were , with handkerchiefs to their mouths , stifling , as they best could , a burst of laughter ; since exactly between his shoulders , in marks of about four inches long , stood the numerals `` 158 , '' a great flourish underneath proclaiming that the roll had probably concluded , and that this was the `` last man . '' Of the major , tradition had already consecrated one exploit ; he had once kicked an impertinent tradesman down the great flight of iron stairs which leads from the Upper Town to Diamond Harbor , -- a feat , to appreciate which , it is necessary to bear in mind that the stair in question is almost perpendicular , and contains six hundred and forty-eight steps ! My very back ached by anticipation as I thought of it ; and as I retreated towards the door , it was in a kind of shuffle , feeling like one who had been well thrashed .