midnight
The streets were fiercely alive . Among the throngs of well-dressed people one caught swift glimpses of furtive , hurrying figures , and faces that were danger signals . More than once a few words hissed into Peter 's ears made him turn pale . It was nearing midnight , and the street was virtually empty , when a girl who had looked at him sharply in passing turned and followed him , and after a glance about to see that no policeman was in sight , stepped to his side and touched him on the elbow . Peter paused , and his heart contracted . He had seen among the negroes the careless unmorality as of animals . There was nothing of the prude in him , but , perhaps because all his life there had been a Vision before his eyes , he had retained a singularly untroubled mental chastity .