midnight
`` I have been trying to do so , Cora , but every time I try to begin my narrative by reverting to the hour of my flight , I seem spellbound to that hour and can not escape from it . But I will try again , '' he said , and he began his story . He told her , in brief , that on leaving the Rockhold house and going out upon the sidewalk , he found the streets still alight with illuminated houses and alive with the orgies of revelers who had come to the inauguration . In moving through the crowd he was unrecognized , for who could suspect the black-coated figure passing alone along the street at midnight to be the governor-elect of the State , in whose honor the assembled multitudes were getting drunk ? His first intention had been to take a hack , drive to the railway depot , and board the first train going West . But the hacks were all engaged as sleeping berths by men who could not get accommodations in any of the houses of the overcrowded city . So he set off to walk , and almost immediately came face to face with old Scythia , the friend of his childhood .