midnight
And it was then , quite suddenly , the impulse came to -- stay and skate alone . The thought of the stuffy hotel room , and of those noisy people with their obvious jokes and laughter , oppressed him . He felt a longing to be alone with the night ; to taste her wonder all by himself there beneath the stars , gliding over the ice . It was not yet midnight , and he could skate for half an hour . That supper party , if they noticed his absence at all , would merely think he had changed his mind and gone to bed . It was an impulse , yes , and not an unnatural one ; yet even at the time it struck him that something more than impulse lay concealed behind it . More than invitation , yet certainly less than command , there was a vague queer feeling that he stayed because he had to , almost as though there was something he had forgotten , overlooked , left undone .