midnight
And with an approving nod to Jack , she bundled her husband from the room . The door closed ; the young girl began to pour out the tea , but Jack remained in his seat by the window . It was a singular sensation which he did not care to disturb . It was no new thing for Mr. Hamlin to find himself at a tete-a-tete repast with the admiring and complaisant fair ; there was a ` cabinet particulier ' in a certain San Francisco restaurant which had listened to their various vanities and professions of undying faith ; he might have recalled certain festal rendezvous with a widow whose piety and impeccable reputation made it a moral duty for her to come to him only in disguise ; it was but a few days ago that he had been let privately into the palatial mansion of a high official for a midnight supper with a foolish wife . It was not strange , therefore , that he should be alone here , secretly , with a member of that indiscreet , loving sex . But that he should be sitting there in a cheap negro laundry with absolutely no sentiment of any kind towards the heavy-haired , freckle-faced country schoolgirl opposite him , from whom he sought and expected nothing , and ENJOYING it without scorn of himself or his companion , to use his own expression , `` got him . '' Presently he rose and sauntered to the table with shining eyes .