midnight
He was safe there from the acquaintances which constantly formed themselves only to fall into disintegration , and cling to him afterwards as inorganic particles of weather-guessing , and smoking-room gossip about the ship 's run . In the earliest hours of the voyage he thought that he saw some faces of the great world , the world of wealth and fashion ; but these afterward vanished , and left him to wonder where they hid themselves . He did not meet them even in going to and from his meals ; he could only imagine them served in those palatial state-rooms whose interiors the stewards now and then rather obtruded upon the public . There were people whom he encountered in the promenades when he got up for the sunrise , and whom he never saw at other times ; at midnight he met men prowling in the dark whom he never met by day . But none of these were people of the great world . Before six o'clock they were sometimes second-cabin passengers , whose barrier was then lifted for a little while to give them the freedom of the saloon promenade . From time to time he thought he would look up his Ohioan , and revive from a closer study of him his interest in the rare American who had never been to Europe .