midnight
Several grave personages , with black suits , short cloaks , and band-strings of a formal cut , were mingled , as we see their portraits in a gallery of paintings , among the gallants who ruffled in silk and embroidery . It is true , they escaped the scandal of being thought intimates of the Duke , by their business being supposed to refer to money matters . Whether these grave and professing citizens mixed politics with money lending , was not known ; but it had been long observed , that the Jews , who in general confine themselves to the latter department , had become for some time faithful attendants at the Duke 's levee . It was high-tide in the antechamber , and had been so for more than an hour , ere the Duke 's gentleman-in-ordinary ventured into his bedchamber , carefully darkened , so as to make midnight at noonday , to know his Grace 's pleasure . His soft and serene whisper , in which he asked whether it were his Grace 's pleasure to rise , was briefly and sharply answered by the counter questions , `` Who waits ? -- What 's o'clock ? '' `` It is Jerningham , your Grace , '' said the attendant .