midnight
After a breathless half-hour of this the three sought a resort farther up-town , where they found the entire upper floors of a restaurant building given over to `` trotting . '' During the previous winter the craze for dancing had swept New York like a plague , and the various Barbary Coast figures had reached their highest popularity . Here , too , the rooms were thronged and the tables taken , despite the lateness of the season , but for a second time Wharton demonstrated that to a man about town of his accomplishments no place is really closed . However loud the protest against this latest fad , it is doubtful if its effect is wholly harmful , for it at least introduced vigorous exercise and rhythmic movement into the midnight life of the city . Women went home in the gray dawn with faces flushed from natural causes ; exquisite youths of nocturnal habits learned to perspire and to know the feeling of a wilted collar . Bob Wharton had drunk heavily , but up to this time he had shown little effect from his potations beyond a growing exhilaration ; now , however , the wine was taking toll , and Lorelei felt a certain pity for him . Waste is shocking ; it grieved her to see a man so blessed with opportunity flinging himself away so fatuously .