midnight
`` You do look uncommonly fit , I suppose you 've had a gorgeous time . '' Thus invited , Owen launched forth into an account of some of his most thrilling adventures , and the time flew as he recounted the tale of the glorious nights and days he had lived through , or made his hearer laugh with his stories of the various attendants and their humours . The clock had chimed the hour of midnight before the friends left the table ; and then , sitting by the rosy fire , with pipes alight , each one felt that the moment had come in which a deeper subject might well be introduced . Yet Barry , at least , would cheerfully have ignored that subject ; for he foresaw , with friendship 's intuition , that the thing he had to say would effectually mar and break the midnight peace ; and as the moment drew near in which he must strike a fatal blow at his friend 's serenity he fell into an embarrassed silence very unlike his recent cordiality . At last it came -- the question he had dreaded . `` I say , Barry , have you seen much of Vivian lately ? '' Although the subject affected the speaker so vitally , he was so calmly , confidently sure of the reply that his tone was quiet and unagitated .