midnight
He was kind enough to bring it for me ; so I felt more at ease , and prepared to enjoy myself . A very gentlemanly-looking man sang us a song , so unutterably funny that we were dissolved in inextinguishable laughter ; and then , from behind a curtain , began to come boys in black , one after another , as the imps in a pantomime come from a place I dare not mention , to chase the clown to his destruction . I counted twelve of them and grew dizzy . They ranged themselves in a row , with their hands behind them , and began screeching Tennyson 's `` Miller 's Daughter '' with such a maximum of shrillness , and such a minimum of expression , that I began to think that tailing wild cattle on the mountains , at midnight , in a thunderstorm , with my boots full of water , was a far preferable situation to my present one . They finished . Thank goodness . Ah !