about two o'clock
He waited in strained attention during quite half an hour , expectant of the next earthquake . But it did not come . Earthquakes were , indeed , done with till the morrow . It was about two o'clock when his nerves were sufficiently tranquillized to enable him to envisage the possibility of going to sleep . And he was just slipping , gliding , floating off when he was brought back to realities by a terrific explosion of laughter at the head of the stairs outside his bedroom door . The building rang like the inside of a piano when you strike a wire directly . The explosion was followed by low rumblings of laughter and then by a series of jolly , hearty `` Good-nights . ''