twelve o'clock
But in the days to which the incidents here narrated belong , the difference between Carnival and Lent was as marked as that between day and night . More marked indeed . For between day and night there is twilight , but the transition from Carnival to Lent is as sudden as a plunge from sunshine into cold water . Carnival ends at twelve o'clock on the night of Shrove Tuesday . And the theory of its observance is , or was , that the fun and revelry should grow ever more fast and furious up to the last permitted moment . Then , the clock strikes ; the lights are put out , Carnival dies amid one last hurrah . And maskers and revellers go home to rise the next morning with grave and perhaps yellow faces .