A moment of wild company often ends before you have finished wanting it.

Some pleasures are made of conditions that cannot be held in place. The right people, the right hour, a mood nobody arranged: it lasts as long as it lasts, and it usually ends while you still have appetite for it. That unfinished feeling is not a sign that you did it wrong. It is part of the shape of the thing, and it is often what makes you remember the evening at all.

When the mood starts to go, let it go rather than chasing it into a worse hour. Better to leave slightly early and carry the wanting home than to stay until the room has gone flat.