midnight
And so he started on again , and as there was now more likelihood of her seeing him in the empty street , he dropped farther to the rear and kept in the shadow ; and as he did so , he saw a man , whom he had before noticed on the opposite side of the street , quicken his pace and draw nearer to the girl . It seemed impossible to Van Bibber that any man could mistake the standing of this woman and the evident purpose of her haste ; but the man was apparently settling his pace to match hers , as if only waiting an opportunity to approach her . Van Bibber tucked his stick under his arm and moved forward more quickly . It was midnight , and the street was utterly strange to him . From the light of the lamps he could see signs in Hebrew and the double eagle of Russia painted on the windows of the saloons . Long rows of trucks and drays stood ranged along the pavements for the night , and on some of the stoops and fire-escapes of the tenements a few dwarfish specimens of the Polish Jew sat squabbling in their native tongue . But it was not until they had reached Orchard Street , and when Rivington Street was quite empty , that the man drew up uncertainly beside the girl , and , bending over , stared up in her face , and then , walking on at her side , surveyed her deliberately from head to foot .