midnight
Another burst of triumphant laughter rose from the retiring revellers , and again moonlight and returning silence rested on the scene . `` It is my lady : oh , it is my love ! '' _ Romeo and Juliet . _ The agitation of the morning at Stillyside had subsided as the day wore , but the mind of Amanda Macdonald -LRB- for such was the name of the younger and fairer denizen of that sequestered abode -RRB- remained pensive and preoccupied ; and when at her usual hour she had ascended to her chamber , instead of retiring to rest , she took up a tale of the troubadours , and read ; nor did she lay down the volume till the sudden flickering of the candle in the socket and the simultaneous tolling from the distant belfry of the church of the village of Saint Laurent warned her that it was midnight . Then , feeling oppressed , alike with the heaviness of the atmosphere of her room , and a strange weight at her heart , analogous to the lassitude that is sometimes felt in the beginning of sickness , she arose , drew aside the curtains , and throwing open the folding window , stepped on to the verandah . A clear Canadian night , appearing a new and chaster version of the day , greeted her . The moon , at night 's meridian , hung high in the fulness of its autumnal splendor , tranquil in the solitude of the sky , a solitude unbroken , save by a few small stars that were twinkling in the azure , and a fleet of low , dappled clouds that were coasting the horizon .