midnight
; and he -- was there any reason why he should care whether or no they were for him or against him ? True , he had entered the village in the dead of night , with many packages and much luggage , had roused the people at the Louis Quinze , the driver who had brought him departing before daybreak gaily , because of the gifts of gold given him above his wage . True , this singular gentleman had taken three rooms in the Louis Quinze , had paid the landlord in advance , and had then gone to bed , leaving word that he was not to be waked till three o'clock the next afternoon . True , the landlord could not by any hint or indirection discover from whence his midnight visitor came . But if a gentleman paid his way , and was generous and polite , and minded his own business , wherefore should people busy themselves about him ? When he appeared on the veranda of the inn with the hot pennies , not a half-dozen people in the village had known aught of his presence in Pontiac . The children came first , to scorch their fingers and fill their pockets , and after them the idle young men , and the habitants in general .