midnight
Then , they say , she died , and after that he took but little interest in things , spending his time chiefly in such amiable pursuits as the entertainment of the children playing in Central Park , and the writing of an occasional article for the scientific papers , on `` The Peculiar Behavior of Alloys . '' Despite the dinginess of his costume , Mr. Dootleby was a handsome old man , and he looked very out of place on the Bowery . Not that good looks are wanting in the Bowery , for many a crownless Cleopatra mingles with its crowds . But Mr. Dootleby , as he stood in the shadow of the coffee-vender 's booth , seemed to be the one kind of being necessarily incongruous with the midnight Bowery spectacle . Mr. Dootleby stood and looked for full twenty minutes . In some of the faces that passed him he saw only a careless sensuality brightened by the flush of excitement . Others , somewhat older , were full of brazen coarseness , and others , older still , bore that pitiful look of hopeless regret , quickly changing to one that says as plainly as can be that the time for thinking and caring has gone .