midnight
`` Have you found out anything new about him ? Of course you must tell me . '' `` We hold his life in our hands , '' she said quietly , and Aristarchi knew that she was not exaggerating the truth . She began to tell him how this was the third time that a number of masked men had come to the house an hour after dark , and had stayed till midnight or later , and how Contarini had told her that they came to play at dice where they were safe from interruption , and that on these nights the servants were sent to their quarters at sunset on pain of dismissal if Jacopo found them about the house , but that they also received generous presents of money to keep them silent . `` The man is a fool ! '' said Aristarchi again . `` He puts himself in their power . ''