midnight
Their presence did not bore one , as a plethora of white servants might have done . Bedient reflected that the Chinese have not auras of the obtruding sort ... . In his room finally , he drew a chair up to the window , and sat down without turning on light . He had never felt wider awake than now , and midnight struck . He could not keep his thoughts upon the different facets of the present adventure , but back they carried him through the studio-days , one after another , steadily , relentlessly toward the end . It was like the beating of the bass in one of those remorseless Russian symphonies ... . The ride -- the halt upon the highway at high noon -- the kiss in that glorious light -- her wonderful feminine spirit ... and then the blank until they were at her mother 's house .