midnight
How clear the night was ! How keen the stars shone ; how ceaseless the rush of the flowing waters ; the old home trees whispered , and waved gently their dark heads and branches over the cottage roof . Yonder , in the faint starlight glimmer , was the terrace where , as a boy , he walked of summer evenings , ardent and trustful , unspotted , untried , ignorant of doubts or passions ; sheltered as yet from the world 's contamination in the pure and anxious bosom of love ... . The clock of the near town tolling midnight , with a clang disturbs our wanderer 's reverie , and sends him onward toward his night 's resting-place , through the lodge into Clavering avenue , and under the dark arcades of the rustling limes . When he sees the cottage the next time , it is smiling in sunset ; those bedroom windows are open where the light was burning the night before ; and Pen 's tenant , Captain Stokes , of the Bombay Artillery , -LRB- whose mother , old Mrs. Stokes , lives in Clavering -RRB- , receives his landlord 's visit with great cordiality : shows him over the grounds and the new pond he has made in the back-garden from the stables ; talks to him confidentially about the roof and chimneys , and begs Mr. Pendennis to name a day when he will do himself and Mrs. Stokes the pleasure to , & c. Pen , who has been a fortnight in the country , excuses himself for not having called sooner upon the captain by frankly owning that he had not the heart to do it . `` I understand you , sir , '' the captain says ; and Mrs. Stokes who had slipped away at the ring of the bell -LRB- how odd it seemed to Pen to ring the bell ! -RRB- comes down in her best gown , surrounded by her children .