midnight
But the highly colored stripes of the soapy cream that refused to melt , even when he dropped a spoonful into his oily coffee , cured him of further martyrdom to the cause of love . He hastily got up from the table , paid his ticket and ran out . By this time , he felt so sick and chilled that he gloated in the assurance that soon he would be in a raging fever . He pictured Polly 's regrets when she should return home at midnight and hear that he had been taken to a hospital , with a fatal case of double pneumonia . He had decided on having it double , after he left the restaurant , as that would kill him sooner . In this state of mind he had to dodge a taxi and slipped to fall into a mud puddle . But Tom could not resist the desire to see his mother once more , before he died ; and after fighting off this inclination for another hour or two , he was feeling so perfectly awful , that he knew his last call had come for him .