ten o'clock
Ere the second gate swung open and he found himself again in the street , he had built up more than one theory in explanation of this freak of parallel fences with the strip of gloom between . Would he have felt the suggestion of the spot still more deeply , had it been given him to see the anxious and hesitating figure which , immediately upon his departure entered this dark maze , and with feeling hands and cautious step , wound its way from corner to corner -- now stopping abruptly to listen , now shrinking from some imaginary presence -- a shadow among shadows -- till it stood again between the gates from which it had started . Possibly ; even the hardiest of men respond to the unusual , and prove themselves not ungifted with imagination when brought face to face with that for which their experience furnishes no precedent . It was ten o'clock , not later , when the judge re-entered his front door . He was alone , -- absolutely alone , as he had never been since that night of long ago , when with the inner fence completed and the gates all locked , he turned to the great negro at his side and quietly said : `` We are done with the world , Bela . Are you satisfied to share this solitude with me ? '' And Bela had replied : `` Night and day , your honour .