midnight
He knew better , -- he knew that something had happened . He told the company downstairs that he made no doubt there had been a row , and most likely about Master Geoff , and that they might make up their minds to see rare changes . They were all making their comments upon this in the servants ' hall , while Lady Markland , standing at the window , looked out with a sort of desperation , shaping the figure of Theo a hundred times in the distance , scarcely able to restrain the impulse to go out and look for him ; saying to herself , no longer scornfully , but with the profoundest tragic gravity , that he must come back , if only for his clothes ! It was a dim summer night , the sky veiled with clouds , and after midnight fitfully lit by the gleam of a waning moon . She went from window to window noiselessly , thinking that now one , now another , had the most perfect command of the avenue ; hearing a hundred sounds of footsteps , even of distant wheels and horses ' hoofs , which seemed to beat upon the ground far off , and never came to anything ; then when the dawn began to be blue in the sky , threw herself upon her bed and hid her face , knowing that all was over , and that he would come back no more . Scarcely less was the consternation in the Warren when Theo , pale and silent , wrapped in silence as in a cloak , making no reply to the questions asked , ordering his old room to be made ready without any explanation , came back to the already excited house . Dick and Chatty and all their affairs were forgotten in the extraordinary new event .