midnight
As they had planned , so they acted to the letter for the space of a month and more , clandestinely meeting when and where they best could do so ; both being supremely happy and content . To be sure , towards the latter part of that month , when the first wild warmth of her love had gone off , the Lady Caroline sometimes wondered within herself how she , who might have chosen a peer of the realm , baronet , knight ; or , if serious-minded , a bishop or judge of the more gallant sort who prefer young wives , could have brought herself to do a thing so rash as to make this marriage ; particularly when , in their private meetings , she perceived that though her young husband was full of ideas , and fairly well read , they had not a single social experience in common . It was his custom to visit her after nightfall , in her own house , when he could find no opportunity for an interview elsewhere ; and to further this course she would contrive to leave unfastened a window on the ground-floor overlooking the lawn , by entering which a back stair-case was accessible ; so that he could climb up to her apartments , and gain audience of his lady when the house was still . One dark midnight , when he had not been able to see her during the day , he made use of this secret method , as he had done many times before ; and when they had remained in company about an hour he declared that it was time for him to descend . He would have stayed longer , but that the interview had been a somewhat painful one . What she had said to him that night had much excited and angered him , for it had revealed a change in her ; cold reason had come to his lofty wife ; she was beginning to have more anxiety about her own position and prospects than ardour for him . Whether from the agitation of this perception or not , he was seized with a spasm ; he gasped , rose , and in moving towards the window for air he uttered in a short thick whisper , ` Oh , my heart ! '