midnight
`` It is not yet very late . The snow is dry and hard -- we can walk for half an hour . '' Crabbe smiled in a slow infuriating way . `` I claim , I demand the lady for something better than a walk , under dreary midnight skies , over cold and inhospitable winter snows ! Like a man in a certain chronicle I have made a supper and would bid you both attend -- one at least . '' `` A supper ? But whom -- '' Pauline stopped , although glad of the diversion Crabbe 's words offered .