midnight
He had pledged his word to Cecelia Brooke to keep safe for her that cylinder of paper , to return it upon her demand for whatsoever disposition she might choose to make of it . It was no concern of his what that choice might turn out to be , any more than it was his affair if the document were a paper of international importance . But she must and should , if act of his could compass it , be given opportunity to redeem her word of honour if , as one believed , that likewise were involved in the fate of the document . He had stolen into this house like a thief because he had given his pledge and perforce had been made false to that pledge , because he had been despoiled of the concrete evidence of the trust reposed unasked in him , and because he had learned that his spoiler was to meet Stanistreet in this room at midnight . He was here solely to make good his word , to take away that cylinder , could he find it , and to return it to the girl ... not to thieve ... . Never that ! ... Slowly , reluctantly , inevitably he put forth his hand and selected from among those brilliant symbols of his soul 's profound damnation the necklace , a rope of diamonds consummately matched , a rivulet of frozen fire , no single stone less lovely than another .