midnight
As for Clavering , he was a gentleman , and that was the end of that phase of the matter as far as she was concerned . It was only tonight that she had been conscious of a certain youthful eagerness as she paced up and down the hall waiting to hear him run up the steps . She had paused once and laughed at herself as she realized that she was acting like a girl expecting her lover , when she was merely a coldly -- no longer even bitterly -- disillusioned woman , bored with this enforced inaction in New York , welcoming a little adventure to distract her mind from its brooding on the misery she had left behind her in Europe , and on the future to which she had committed herself . And a midnight adventure ! She had shrugged her shoulders and laughed again as she had admitted him . But she felt no disposition to laugh as she sat alone in the chilling room . She was both angry and appalled to remember that she had felt a quivering , almost a distension of her nerves as she had sat there with him in the silence and solitude of the night .