midnight
The task was not an easy one ; but neither was it easy , in her long sleepless nights , to face the thought of what George Dorset was so clearly ready to offer . Baseness for baseness , she hated the other least : there were even moments when a marriage with Rosedale seemed the only honourable solution of her difficulties . She did not indeed let her imagination range beyond the day of plighting : after that everything faded into a haze of material well-being , in which the personality of her benefactor remained mercifully vague . She had learned , in her long vigils , that there were certain things not good to think of , certain midnight images that must at any cost be exorcised -- and one of these was the image of herself as Rosedale 's wife . Carry Fisher , on the strength , as she frankly owned , of the Brys ' Newport success , had taken for the autumn months a small house at Tuxedo ; and thither Lily was bound on the Sunday after Dorset 's visit . Though it was nearly dinner-time when she arrived , her hostess was still out , and the firelit quiet of the small silent house descended on her spirit with a sense of peace and familiarity . It may be doubted if such an emotion had ever before been evoked by Carry Fisher 's surroundings ; but , contrasted to the world in which Lily had lately lived , there was an air of repose and stability in the very placing of the furniture , and in the quiet competence of the parlour-maid who led her up to her room .