midnight
She pulled up her sleeve , and on her white , delicate arm she showed a large bruise . As she pointed to it her eyes filled with miserable tears ; her lips quivered ; anguish breathed in every feature . Yet even in this abasement Marcella was struck once more with her slim prettiness , her refined air . This woman drinking and treating in a low public-house at midnight ! -- rescued thence by a decent husband ! She soothed her as best she could , but when she had succeeded in making the wretched soul take food , and so in putting some physical life into her , she found herself the recipient of an outburst of agony before which she quailed . The woman clung to her , moaning about her husband , about the demon instinct that had got hold of her , she hardly knew how -- by means it seemed originally of a few weeks of low health and small self-indulgences -- and she felt herself powerless to fight ; about the wreck she had brought upon her home , the shame upon her husband , who was the respected , well-paid foreman of one of the large shops of the neighbourhood .