midnight
`` Come ! '' Loder said , abruptly . `` It 's only across the road . '' Fleet Street is generally very quiet , once midnight is passed ; and Eve had no need of guidance or protection as they crossed the pavement , shining like ice in the lamplight . They crossed it slowly , walking apart ; for the dread of physical contact that had possessed them in the cab seemed to have fallen on them again . Inquisitiveness has little place in the region of the city , and they gained the opposite footpath unnoticed by the casual passer-by . Then , still holding apart , they reached and entered Clifford 's Inn .