midnight
The weather is too fine to take a cab . '' His friend answered : `` I would like nothing better . '' Jean replied : `` It is hardly eleven o'clock . We shall arrive much before midnight , so let us go slowly . '' A restless crowd was moving along the boulevard , that throng peculiar to summer nights , drinking , chatting , and flowing like a river , filled with a sense of comfort and joy . Here and there a cafe threw a flood of light upon a knot of patrons drinking at little tables on the sidewalk , which were covered with bottles and glasses , hindering the passing of the hurrying multitude . On the pavement the cabs with their red , blue , or green lights dashed by , showing for a second , in the glimmer , the thin shadow of the horse , the raised profile of the coachman , and the dark box of the carriage .