midnight
-LSB- Sidenote : Short stories -- the various collections . -RSB- That the very large multitude -LSB- 500 -RSB- of his short stories -LRB- or , one begs pardon , brief-narratives -RRB- is composed of units very different in merit is not wonderful . It was as certain that the covers of the author of _ Boule de Suif _ -LSB- 501 -RSB- would be drawn for the kind of thing frequently , as that these would sometimes be drawn either blank , or with the result of a very indifferent run . To an eye of some expertness , indeed , a good many of these pieces are , at best , the sort of thing that a clever contributor would turn off to editorial order , when he looked into a newspaper office between three and five , or ten and midnight . I confess that I once burst out laughing when , having thought to myself on reading one , `` This is not much above a better written Paul-de-Kockery , '' I found at the end something like a frank acknowledgment of the fact , _ with the name _ . In fact , Maupassant was not good at the pure _ grivoiserie _ ; his contemporary M. Armand Silvestre -LRB- _ v. inf . _ -RRB- did it much better .