twelve o'clock at night
The prime intent of this recital , as set forth at the beginning , was to tell why Mr. Max Lobel had an attack of apoplexy . That original purpose having been now carried out , there remains nothing more to be added and the chapter ends . Over Jefferson Poindexter 's usually buoyant spirits a fabric of gloom , black , thick , and heavy , was spread like a burying-pall . His thoughts were the color of twelve o'clock at night at the bottom of a coal-mine and it the dark of the moon . Moroseness crowned his brow ; sorrow berode his soul , and on his under lip the bull-bat , that eccentric bird which has to sit lengthwise of the limb , might have perched with room to spare . You could n't see the ointment for the flies , and Gilead had gone out of the balm business . There was a reason .