midnight
But , by the same easy formula with which he could account for anything in Nina 's conduct by her ` coquetry , ' he was able to explain every deviation from decorum of Joe Atlee 's by his ` snobbery . ' And it is astonishing how comfortable the thought made him , that this man , in all his smartness and ready wit , in his prompt power to acquire , and his still greater quickness to apply knowledge , was after all a most consummate snob . He had no taste for a dinner at commons , so he ate his mutton-chop at a tavern , and went to the play . Ineffably bored , he sauntered along the almost deserted streets of the city , and just as midnight was striking , he turned under the arched portal of the college . Secretly hoping that Atlee might be absent , he inserted the key and entered his quarters . The grim old coal-bunker in the passage , the silent corridor , and the dreary room at the end of it , never looked more dismal than as he surveyed them now by the light of a little wax-match he had lighted to guide his way . There stood the massive old table in the middle , with its litter of books and papers -- memories of many a headache ; and there was the paper of coarse Cavendish , against which he had so often protested , as well as a pewter-pot -- a new infraction against propriety since he had been away .