midnight
He was that type of man . What did not come within the zone of his own experience , did not exist for him except as obstacles to brush aside . It was a damned bad time , he thought , for Mary-Clare to act up her book stuff . A man , home after a three months ' absence , tired and worn out , could not be expected , at close upon midnight , to enjoy this outrageous nonsense that had been sprung upon him . He must put an end to it at once . He discarded the cave method . Of course that impulse was purely primitive .