midnight
All the children of one 's friends had got big maps of England cut up into squares to represent constituencies and were busy sticking gummed blue labels over the conquered red of Unionism that had hitherto submerged the country . And there were also orange labels , if I remember rightly , to represent the new Labour party , and green for the Irish . I engaged myself to speak at one or two London meetings , and lunched at the Reform , which was fairly tepid , and dined and spent one or two tumultuous evenings at the National Liberal Club , which was in active eruption . The National Liberal became feverishly congested towards midnight as the results of the counting came dropping in . A big green-baize screen had been fixed up at one end of the large smoking-room with the names of the constituencies that were voting that day , and directly the figures came to hand , up they went , amidst cheers that at last lost their energy through sheer repetition , whenever there was record of a Liberal gain . I do n't remember what happened when there was a Liberal loss ; I do n't think that any were announced while I was there . How packed and noisy the place was , and what a reek of tobacco and whisky fumes we made !