midnight
Between that moment and her too exhaustive knowledge of life stood the magnetic figure of her son , safeguarding , almost hypnotizing her . She was as incapable of jealousy as of aching vanity in the fact of a son whom the world was never permitted to forget . She had done with little things , and Isabel , with young curiosity , wondered in what convulsion the last of them had gone down . Lady Victoria , unconscious of the analytical mind groping to conclusions beside her , was revolving the midnight comments of Flora Thangue , and her own impressions of this American relative whose sudden advent , taken in connection with her eighteenth century beauty and undecipherable quality , wrought the impression of a symbolic figure swimming out of space . Lady Victoria was far too indifferent to analyze the problems of any woman 's soul , but she was keenly alive to the vital suggestion of power in the girl , and of the strong will and intellect , the command over every faculty , evidenced in the strong line of the jaw , the stern noble profile , the calm searching gaze so difficult to sustain . None knew better than Victoria the value and rarity of a free and courageous soul . Such a woman must , when more fully developed , throw the whole weight of her character into the scales balancing for the few whom she recognized as equals and accepted as friends .