midnight
he added , `` I think he is as proud as Lucifer , and I may get nothing for my civility but the excuse of a previous engagement . '' But Bryce Denning expected much more than this , and he got all that he expected . The young men had a common ground to meet on , and they quickly became as intimate as ever Frederick Mostyn permitted himself to be with a stranger . Bryce could hardly help catching enthusiasm from Mostyn on the subject of New York , and he was able to show his new acquaintance phases of life in the marvelous city which were of the greatest interest to the inquisitive Yorkshire squire -- Chinese theaters and opium dives ; German , Italian , Spanish , Jewish , French cities sheltering themselves within the great arms of the great American city ; queer restaurants , where he could eat of the national dishes of every civilized country under the sun ; places of amusement , legal and illegal , and the vast under side of the evident life -- all the uncared for toiling of the thousands who work through the midnight hours . In these excursions the young men became in a way familiar , though neither of them ever told the other the real feelings of their hearts or the real aim of their lives . The proposed dinner took place ten days after its suggestion . There was nothing remarkable in the function itself ; all millionaires have the same delicacies and the same wines , and serve these things with precisely the same ceremonies .