midnight
Of course , I see now that he was looking at the man exactly under similar conditions when we made that stop at 42nd Street . '' Thus , unknown to either of the parties to the alliance , a minor crisis was averted , because it may safely be conceded that the hard-headed policeman would have refused then and there to accept any sort of statement from such a lunatic as John Delancy Curtis , if he were given a full , true , and particular account of the night 's proceedings while being whirled up Fifth Avenue in a fast moving automobile . Romance , if it is to be accepted without question , requires the setting of a comfortable armchair or tree-shaded nook in a summer garden . There , forgetting and forgotten by the world , man or maid may indeed be carried far on the Magic Carpet of Tangu , but , when served out by two strangers to a prosaic policeman seated in a humming car , and bound Heaven knew whither long after midnight , it is apt to savor of the moon and witchcraft . Away up the straight vista of Fifth Avenue sped the two cars . On the left lay the black solitude of Central Park , on the right the varied architecture of New York 's millionaire dwellings . Devar and the policeman talked cheerfully enough , but Curtis was wrapped in his own musings till the rear lamp of the gray car suddenly curved to the left and vanished .