about midnight
The winds seemed wilfully struggling for the house to snatch and wing it away into the drear Eternities of the night : and I could not but heave the sigh : ` Alas for us two poor waifs and castaways of our race , little bits of flotsam and seaweed-hair cast up here a moment , ah me , on this shore of the Ages , soon to be dragged back , O turgid Eternity , into thy abysmal gorge ; and upon what strand -- who shall say ? -- shall she next be flung , and I , divided then perhaps by all the stretch of the trillion-distanced astral gulf ? ' And such a pity , and a wringing of the heart , seemed in things , that a tear fell from my eyes that ominous midnight . She started up at a gust of more appalling volume , rubbing her eyes , with dishevelled hair -LRB- it must have been about midnight -RRB- , listening a minute , with that demure , droll interest of hers , to the noise of the elements , and then smiled to me ; rose then , left the room , and presently returned with a pomegranate and some almonds on a plate , also some delicious old sweet wine in a Samian cruche , and an old silver cup , gilt inside , standing in a zarf . These she placed on the table near me , I murmuring : ` Hospitality . ' She looked at the book , which I read as I ate , with lowered left eye-lid , seeking to guess its use , I suppose . Most things she understands at once , but this must have baffled her : for to see one looking fixedly at a thing , and not know what one is looking at it for , must be very disconcerting .