midnight
He , I say -- I can not say , I . That child of Hell had nothing human ; nothing lived in him but fear and hatred . And when at last , thinking the driver had begun to grow suspicious , he discharged the cab and ventured on foot , attired in his misfitting clothes , an object marked out for observation , into the midst of the nocturnal passengers , these two base passions raged within him like a tempest . He walked fast , hunted by his fears , chattering to himself , skulking through the less frequented thoroughfares , counting the minutes that still divided him from midnight . Once a woman spoke to him , offering , I think , a box of lights . He smote her in the face , and she fled . When I came to myself at Lanyon 's , the horror of my old friend perhaps affected me somewhat : I do not know ; it was at least but a drop in the sea to the abhorrence with which I looked back upon these hours .