midnight
I was , indeed , falling over a precipice and her arms were not holding me back but dragging me over . Would that I , like the dreamer , could awaken with a start . In all conscience , I was dizzy enough ; and every pressure of that hateful object to her face bound me faster in a dungeon of utter hopelessness . My sweet day-dreams and midnight rhapsodies trooped back to mock at me . I felt that I must bow broken under anguish or else steel myself and shout back cynical derision to the whole wan troop of torturing regrets . And all the time , she was caressing that thing in her hand and looking down at it with a fondness , which I -- poor fool -- thought that I alone could inspire . I suppose if I could have crept away unobserved , I would have gone from her presence hardened and embittered ; but I must play out the hateful part of eavesdropper to the end .