midnight
A brass band alternated with the quadrille band , and it played so loudly that we had to talk at the top of our voices to be heard . Mine soon gave out , and I begged Mr. Parker to bring Helen , for I had not yet seen her . She was with Dr. White , who had dropped in to see the miserable spectacle . The air , he said , shaking his finger at me , was already miasmal ; it would be infernal by midnight Christians ought not to be there . `` Go home early , Miss. . Your mother never went to a ball , I 'll warrant . '' `` We are wiser than our mothers . ''