midnight
Her cheeks were aflame , and her eyes burned with all the tears which she would not shed , but she herself felt cold and numb , as she ran on blindly , stupidly , to where she had just seen a tiny speck of light . The night was dark but exquisitely calm -- perfectly still , yet full of those mysterious whisperings which come from the bosom of the plain , the flutter of birds ' wings , snug in their night 's lodgings amongst the drooping branches of pollarded willows , the quiver of the plumed heads of maize , touched by some fairy garment as it brushed by , the call of the cricket from among the tall sunflowers and the quiver of the glow-worm on the huge pumpkin leaves . Elsa knew all these soft whisperings ; she was a child of this immense and majestic plain , and all the furtive little beasts that dwelt within its maze were bosom friends of hers . At other times , when her mind and heart had been at peace , she loved these dark , calm nights , when heavy clouds hid the light of the moon and sounds grew louder and more distinct as the darkness grew more tense ; neither fluttering of unseen wings nor quiver of stealthy footsteps had the power to startle her ; they were all her friends , these tiny dwellers of the plain , these midnight marauders of whom townsfolk are always so afraid . At first , when she perceived the tiny speck of light on ahead , she thought that it must be a glow-worm settled on the leaves of the dahlias outside the school-house , for glow-worms had been over-abundant this late summer , but soon she saw that the burning speck was moving along , on ahead in the same direction as she herself was going -- on the way to Ignácz Goldstein 's . Béla had lighted a cigar when he left the barn ; nursing his resentment , he had walked along rapidly toward the inn , his head whirling with thoughts of the many things which he meant to do in order to be revenged on Elsa this night . Of course a long visit to Klara fully entered into those schemes , and now he paused just at the foot of the verandah steps breathing in the soft evening air with fully dilated nostrils and lungs , so that his nerves might regain some semblance of that outward calm which his dignity demanded .