midnight
He turned off the lights in the library and went upstairs to his bedroom . Outside his wife 's door he paused a moment , thinking he heard a sound , -- but all was silent . Imagining that he probably would not sleep he placed a book near his bedside -- but nature was kind to his age and temperament , and after about an hour of wakefulness and sad perplexity , all ruffling care was gradually smoothed away from his mind , and he fell into a deep and dreamless slumber . Meanwhile Lady Blythe had been disrobed by a drowsy maid whom she sharply reproached for being sleepy when she ought to have been wide awake , though it was long past midnight , -- and dismissing the girl at last , she sat alone before her mirror , thinking with some pettishness of the interview she had just had with her husband . `` Old fool ! '' she soliloquised -- `` He ought to know better than to play the tragic-sentimental with me at his time of life ! I thought he would accept the situation reasonably and help me to tackle it .