midnight
And meanwhile the handsome boy sat opposite , glad to laugh by way of reaction , but at bottom stirred by the same emotion , and ready to share in the same adorations . Gradually David learnt his way about this bygone world of Barbier 's recollection . A vivid picture sprang up in him of these strange leaders of a strange band , these cadaverous poets and artists of Louis Philippe 's early days , beings in love with Lord Byron and suicide , having Art for God , and Hugo for prophet , talking of were-wolves , vampires , cathedrals , sunrises , forests , passion and despair , hatted like brigands , cloaked after Vandyke , curled like Absalom , making new laws unto themselves in verse as in morals , and leaving all petty talk of duty or common sense to the Academy and the nursery . George Sand walking the Paris quays in male dress -- George Sand at Fontainebleau roaming the midnight forest with Alfred de Musset , or wintering with her dying musician among the mountains of Palma ; Gerard de Nerval , wanderer , poet , and suicide ; Alfred de Musset flaming into verse at dead of night amid an answering and spendthrift blaze of wax candles ; Baudelaire 's blasphemies and eccentricities -- these characters and incidents Barbier wove into endless highly coloured tales , to which David listened with perpetual relish . ' _ Mon Dieu _ ! _ Mon Dieu _ ! What times !