midnight
`` I might have offered heavier odds , '' he said to himself , `` for never , never will she square papa . '' And , not without a light sense of shame , he was conscious that he made this reflection with a measure of relief . Katherine stood in the central space of the great , state bedroom . It was just upon midnight , yet she still wore her jewels and her handsome , trailing , black , velvet dress . She was very tired . But that tiredness proceeded less from physical than mental weariness . This she recognised , and foresaw that weariness of this character was not likely to find relief and extinction within the shelter of the curtains of the stately bed , whereon the ancient Persian legend of the flight of the Hart through the tangled Forest of This Life was so deftly and quaintly embroidered .