midnight
This man for them had lost peace , health , joy , strength , every hope of life ; to dedicate her own life to him , as he had vainly prayed her when in the full glow and vigor of his manhood , was the only means by which their vast debt to him could be paid . To so pay it was the instant choice of her high code of honor , and of her generosity that would not be outrun . Moreover , she pitied him unspeakably , though her heart had no tenderness for him ; she had dismissed him with cold disdain , and he had gone from her to save the only life she loved , and was stretched a stricken , broken , helpless wreck , with endless years of pain and weariness before him ! At midnight , in the great , dim magnificence of the state chamber where he lay , and with the low , soft chanting of the chapel choir from afar echoing through the incensed air , she bent her haughty head down over his couch , and the marriage benediction was spoken over them . His voice was faint and broken , but it had the thrill of a passionate triumph in it . When the last words were uttered , he lay a while , exhausted , silent ; only looking ever upward at her with his dark , dreamy eyes , in which the old love glanced so strangely through the blindness of pain . Then he smiled as the last echo of the choral melodies died softly on the silence .