midnight
He felt on this point a passion of suspense and impatience , and yet for what would it be but to tell her how poor he was ? This was literally the moment to say it , so supremely depleted had the hour of Bohemia left him . Even Bohemia was too expensive , and yet in the course of the day his whole temper on the subject of certain fitnesses had changed . At Jersey Villas -LRB- it was near midnight , and Mrs. Ryves , scratching a light for her glimmering taper , had said : `` Oh , yes , come in for a minute if you like ! '' -RRB- , in her precarious parlour , which was indeed , after the brilliances of the evening , a return to ugliness and truth , she let him stand while he explained that he had certainly everything in the way of fame and fortune still to gain , but that youth and love and faith and energy -- to say nothing of her supreme dearness -- were all on his side . Why , if one 's beginnings were rough , should one add to the hardness of the conditions by giving up the dream which , if she would only hear him out , would make just the blessed difference ? Whether Mrs. Ryves heard him out or not is a circumstance as to which this chronicle happens to be silent ; but after he had got possession of both her hands and breathed into her face for a moment all the intensity of his tenderness -- in the relief and joy of utterance he felt it carry him like a rising flood -- she checked him with better reasons , with a cold , sweet afterthought in which he felt there was something deep .