midnight
Life to-day was not the beautiful web , all aglow with the tangling of gold and silver threads , that had once charmed and dazzled her , for the mildew of hopelessness had tarnished the gilding , and the mesh was only a mass of dark knots , and subtle crossings , and inextricable confusion . Like that lost star that once burned so luridly in Cassiopeia , and flickered out , leaving a gulf of gloom where stellar glory was , the one most precious hope that lights and sanctifies a woman 's heart had waned and grown sickly , and finally had gone out utterly , and dust and ashes and darkness filled the void . In natures such as hers , this hope is not allied to the phoenix , and , once crushed , knows no resurrection ; consequently she cheated herself with no vain expectation that the mighty wizard , Time , could evoke from corpse or funeral-pyre even a spark to cheer the years that were thundering before her . A few months ago the future had glistened as peaceful and silvery as the Dead Sea at midnight , when a full-orbed Syrian moon glares down , searching for the palms and palaces that once marked Gomorrah 's proud places ; and , like some thirsty traveller smitten with surface sheen , she had laid her fevered lips to the treacherous margin , and , drinking eagerly , had been repaid with brine and bitumen . Disappointment was with her no meek , mute affair , but a savage fiend that browbeat and anathematized fate , accusing her of rendering existence a mere Nitocris banquet , where , while every sense is sharpened and pampered , and fruition almost touches the outstretched hands of eager trust , the flood-gates of the mighty Nile of despair are lifted , and its chill , dusky waves make irremediable wreck of all . With the quiet thoughtfulness and good sense that characterized her unobtrusive conduct , Miss Dexter had prepared from Muriel 's wardrobe an entire suit of mourning , which she prevailed upon Salome to accept and wear ; and , on the morning of the funeral , the latter went down early into the draped and darkened parlor , where the coffin and its cold tenant awaited the last offices that dust can perform for dust . She had not spoken to Dr. Grey for twenty-four hours , and , finding him beside the table where his sister 's body lay , the orphan would have retreated , but he caught the rustling sound of her crape and bombazine , and held out his hand .