midnight
And now he was not tempted any more by foolish desires . He meant to do work that would put him in the front rank of big men . And , thinking of the old struggle , he threw out his hand , as he had done that night when he had met Francey Wilmot , and clenched the slender , powerful fingers as though he had life by the throat , smiling a little in the cold , rather cruel way that Cosgrave knew -- a theatrical gesture , had it been less passionately sincere . It was in his consulting-room that Cosgrave found him after a prolonged , muddle-headed search that had lasted till close on midnight . Cosgrave himself was drunk -- less with wine than with a kind of heady exhilaration that made him in turn maudlingly sentimental or recklessly hilarious . And yet there was a definite and serious purpose in his coming -- a rather pathetic desire to `` put himself right , '' to get Stonehouse , who leant against the mantleshelf watching him with a frank contempt , to understand and sympathise . `` Of course -- you 're mad with me -- you 've got every right to be -- it was a rotten thing to do -- bolting like that -- beastly ungrateful and inconsiderate .