Midnight
She had not stirred at the sound of Dick 's arrival . Soon after , making a considerable disturbance amid the vast silence of the night , the clock lifted up its voice , whined for a while like a partridge , and then eleven times hooted like a cuckoo . Still Esther continued immovable and gazed upon the candle . Midnight followed , and then one of the morning ; and still she had not stirred , nor had Richard Naseby dared to quit the window . And then , about half-past one , the candle she had been thus intently watching flared up into a last blaze of paper , and she leaped to her feet with an ejaculation , looked about her once , blew out the light , turned round , and was heard rapidly mounting the staircase in the dark . Dick was left once more alone to darkness and to that dulled and dogged state of mind when a man thinks that Misery must now have done her worst , and is almost glad to think so . He turned and walked slowly towards the stile ; she had told him no hour , and he was determined , whenever she came , that she should find him waiting .