nine at night
But darkest Dixie was New Orleans . There no three `` damned secesh '' might stop on a corner in broadest sunlight and pass the time of day . There the `` rebel '' printing-presses stood cold in dust and rust . There churches were shut and bayonet-guarded because their ministers would not read the prayers ordered by the `` oppressor , '' and there , for being on the street after nine at night , ladies of society , diners-out , had been taken to the lock-up and the police-court . In New Orleans all news but bad news was contraband to any `` he or she adder , '' but four-fold contraband to the Callenders , the fairest member of whose trio , every time a blue-and-gold cavalier forced her conversation , stung him to silence with some word as mild as a Cordelia 's . And yet , -LRB- you demur , -RRB- in the course of a whole year , by some kind luck , surely the blessed truth -- Ah , the damsel on the tight-rope took care against that ! It was part of her dance to drop from that perch as daintily as a bee-martin way-laying a hive , devour each home-coming word as he devours bees , and flit back and twitter and flutter as a part of all nature 's harmony , though in chills of dismay at her peril and yet burning to go to Hilary , from whom this task alone forever held her away .