Midnight
He could hear the rush of his own swift pulses in his ears - not the faintest sound besides . Such silence is there nowhere but in the city of the dead and at night , nowhere but in the desert . He tied the mule 's bridle to a stela of granite covered with inscriptions , and went forward to the appointed place . Midnight must be past -- that he saw by the position of the moon , and he was beginning to ask himself whether he should remain standing where he was or go on to meet the water-bearer when he heard first a light footstep , and then saw a tall erect figure wrapped in a long mantle advancing straight towards him along the avenue of sphinxes . Was it a man or a woman -- was it she whom he expected ? and if it were she , was there ever a woman who had come to meet a lover at an assignation with so measured , nay so solemn , a step ? Now he recognized her face -- was it the pale moonlight that made it look so bloodless and marble-white ?