nearly midnight
Mallory Tompkins knew about the opening period of all sorts of things , and in regard to people whose names began with `` A '' you could n't stick him . I do n't mean that he and Mr. Pupkin lived a mere routine of studious evenings . That would be untrue . Quite often their time was spent in much less commendable ways than that , and there were poker parties in their sitting-room that did n't break up till nearly midnight . Card-playing , after all , is a slow business , unless you put money on it , and , besides , if you are in a bank and are handling money all day , gambling has a fascination . I 've seen Pupkin and Mallory Tompkins and Joe Milligan , the dentist , and Mitchell the ticket agent , and the other `` boys '' sitting round the table with matches enough piled up in front of them to stock a factory . Ten matches counted for one chip and ten chips made a cent -- so you see they were n't merely playing for the fun of the thing .