midnight
`` You and I , Screw , are likely to quarrel , '' I thought to myself , as I tried vainly to stare him out of countenance . I entered on my new and felonious functions forthwith . Resistance was useless , and calling for help would have been sheer insanity . It was midnight ; and , even supposing the windows had not been barred , the house was a mile from any human habitation . Accordingly , I abandoned myself to fate with my usual magnanimity . Only let me end in winning Alicia , and I am resigned to the loss of whatever small shreds and patches of respectability still hang about me -- such was my philosophy . I wish I could have taken higher moral ground with equally consoling results to my own feelings .