four o'clock in the morning
He felt so undignified , so glaringly conspicuous , so -- well , so scandalously immature . If only it had been an orthodox costume party which Mrs. Carroway had given , why , then he might have gone as a Roman senator or as a private chief or an Indian brave or a cavalier . In doublet or jack boots or war bonnet , in a toga , even , he might have mastered the dilemma and carried off a dubious situation . But to be adrift in an alien quarter of a great and heartless city round four o'clock in the morning , so picturesquely and so unseasonably garbed , and in imminent peril of detection , was a prospect calculated to fill one with the frenzied delirium of a nightmare made real . Put yourself in his place , I ask you . His slippered feet spurned the thin snow as he moved rapidly back toward the west . Ahead of him he could detect the clumped outlines of the taxicab , and at the sight of it he quickened to a trot .