midnight
Her superior education and gem-freighted soul were all the fortune she brought him ; a fortune greater than the treasures of Ind. , but of whose princely value he had not the power to form the most distant estimate . To behold her tall , graceful figure flitting through his elegant mansion , performing some light household duty , receiving her guests or chatting and singing gayly through the long evenings , was , to him , life 's whole of happiness . And was Louise altogether content with the man of her choice ? No , or she had not gathered Wimbledon about her to make merry the midnight hour . People do not give fêtes to display their happiness . They give them too often to relieve a tedious monotony , to silence a gnawing discontent , and forget for the moment in hilarious excitement some uneasy foreboding of evil to come , or disquieting conviction that all , even now , is not as it should be . Louise had not been many weeks Mrs. Edson , before she discovered the man she had taken for `` better or worse '' till death should separate them , was no helpmeet for her .