midnight
All these things were true and vital , and she had been only a spectator , a visitor at the fair . Life had surged around her , but had touched her not at all , or lightly at best . Unconsciously her thoughts toward the sleeping city were as though she offered herself to it and to the life that bound it and swept through its veins . Presently , across the water , a clock began to strike the hour -- midnight -- and softened by the distance , the chimes came gently across the intervening space . Helen roused herself a moment : midnight ! Yet the blood that flushed her cheeks showed that sleep for her was still afar off . And so she sat , unmoving , while in the darkness above her the myriad stars moved slowly in their majestic courses .