midnight
You see I know Paris very well . '' She did not look convinced , but Sengoun came up and she bade them both good night and went away with the Princess Mistchenka . As , arm in arm , the two young men sauntered around the corner of the rue Soleil d'Or , two men who had been sitting on a marble bench beside the sun-dial fountain rose and strolled after them . At midnight the two young men had not yet parted . For , as Sengoun explained , the hour for parting was already past , and it was too late to consider it now . And Neeland thought so , too , what with the laughter and the music , and the soft night breezes to counsel folly , and the city 's haunting brilliancy stretching away in bewitching perspectives still unexplored . From every fairy lamp the lustrous capital signalled to youth her invitation , her challenge , and her menace .