midnight
The scene is laid in a lodging-house , and the discomforts of one Monsieur Choufleur , an elderly gentleman in a flowered dressing-gown and a gigantic nightcap , furnish forth all the humor of the piece . What Monsieur Choufleur has done to deserve his discomforts , and why a certain student named Charles should devote all the powers of his mind to the devising and inflicting of those discomforts , is a mystery which we , the audience , are never permitted to penetrate . Enough that Charles , being a youth of mischievous tastes and extensive wardrobe , assumes a series of disguises for the express purpose of tormenting Monsieur Choufleur , and is unaccountably rewarded in the end with the hand of Monsieur Choufleur 's daughter ; a consummation which brings down the curtain amid loud applause , and affords entire satisfaction to everybody . It is by this time close upon midnight , and , leaving the theatre with the rest of the audience , we find a light rain falling . The noisy thoroughfare is hushed to comparative quiet . The carriages that roll by are homeward bound . The waiters yawn at the doors of the cafés and survey pedestrians with a threatening aspect .