midnight
Now that there was going to be a child , there would be three people dependent upon him . He was past fifty , and not robust . One night , after Tillie was asleep , he slipped noiselessly into his clothes and out to the barn , where he hitched up the horse with nervous fingers . Tillie never learned of that midnight excursion to the `` Climbing Rose , '' two miles away . Lights blazed in every window ; a dozen automobiles were parked before the barn . Somebody was playing a piano . From the bar came the jingle of glasses and loud , cheerful conversation .