midnight
The Christmas holidays had come , and with them a welcome vacation for Hedley Marstern . Although as yet a briefless young lawyer , he had a case in hand which absorbed many of his thoughts -- the conflicting claims of two young women in his native village on the Hudson . It must not be imagined that the young women were pressing their claims except as they did so unconsciously , by virtue of their sex and various charms . Nevertheless , Marstern was not the first lawyer who had clients over whom midnight oil was burned , they remaining unaware of the fact . If not yet a constitutional attorney , he was at least constitutionally one . Falling helplessly in love with one girl simplifies matters . There are no distracting pros and cons -- nothing required but a concentration of faculties to win the enslaver , and so achieve mastery .