midnight
He appeared to be thinking deeply , for he leaned forward in an unmonastic attitude with his knees apart , his elbows resting upon them , and his hands clasped . He gazed across the prosaic potato-bed with his colourless lips slightly apart . `` One night , '' he began meditatively , `` I went to sit with you after the bell for matins had been rung . From midnight till three o'clock you never moved . Then I gave you some cordial , and as I stooped over you the candle flickered a little ; there were strange shadows upon your face , but around your lips there was a deeper shade . I had seen it once before , on my brother 's face when he lay upon the hard Paris pavement with a bullet in his lungs , and his breath whistling through the orifice as the wind whistles round our walls in winter . I held the candle closer to your face , and as I did so , a hand came over my shoulder and took it from my fingers .