midnight
`` You must be worn out . Come into the dining room and have supper . '' And they all enjoyed their excellent meal of hot oysters , and dismissed politics until the morrow . But if Hamilton consigned politics to oblivion at midnight and slept for the few hours demanded by outraged nature , he plunged from the crystal of his bath into their reeking blackness early in the morning . He had laughed the night before , but he was in the worst of tempers as he shut his study door behind him . For the first time in his life he was on a battle-ground with no sensation of joy in the coming fight . The business was too ugly and the prospect was almost certain defeat .