Iwas not in a hurry, and walked along, basking in thewarm evening

The definite article is also found with nouns denoting parts of
the day used generically.

e.g. He used to spend the morning lying about the beach.

I often sat up the night with him and read to him to ease his
pain.

2) When nouns indicating parts of the day have a descriptive
attribute and are the centre of communication in the sentence
. they are used with the indefinite article (in its aspective func-
tion). This use of the indefinite article is mainly found in the fol-
lowing sentence patterns:

e.g. It had been a wet day; the pavements were glistening, though
now the rain had stopped.

It was a fine, warm night and Charles and I decided to walk
home.

On a hot September evening he strolled idly to the embankment.
We were having tea in my room on a cold January after-
noon.

3) Nouns denoting parts of the day have no article when they
are used as predicatives.

e.g. It was evening when he decided to lay his books aside and
take a walk.

It was nearly midnight and neither of us had eaten for a long

time.

It was dusk but I could see Henry walking across the field.
However, if these nouns are used predicatively with a de-
scriptive attribute, the indefinite article is used (see point 2
above).

But the article is not used with nouns denoting parts of the
day if they are modified by one of the following adjectives:
e.g. It was early morning.