midnight
How well they all behaved , these society butterflies -- Jasmine , Lady Tynemouth , and the others ! But what a wonderful motherliness and impulsive sympathy steadied by common sense did Al ` mah the singing-woman show ! Her instinct was infallible , her knowledge of how these poor people felt was intuitive , and her great-heartedness was to be seen in every motion , heard in every tone of her voice . If she had not had this work of charity to do , she felt she would have gone shrieking through the valley , as , this very midnight , she had seen a girl with streaming hair and bare breast go crying through the streets , and on up the hills to the deep woods , insane with grief and woe . Her head throbbed . She felt as though she also could tear the coverings from her own bosom to let out the fever which was there ; for in her life she had loved two men who had trampled on her self-respect , had shattered all her pride of life , had made her ashamed to look the world in the face . Blantyre , her husband , had been despicable and cruel , a liar and a deserter ; and to-night she had seen the man to whom she had given all that was left of her heart and faith disgrace himself and his class before the world by a cowardice which no woman could forgive .