midnight
She seems nervous . '' Night again -- and again the mist and the drizzle ; again the country lane , but without the warm club-house fire , the cheery lights , the highball , and the thumping motor car . Soggy , squashy mud instead of the clean tonneau ; heavy , cruel wading through unknown by-ways in place of the thrilling rush to Fenlock . Not twenty-four hours had passed , and yet it seemed that ages lay between the joyous midnight and the sodden , heart-breaking eve that followed . The guests at the Somerset kept close indoors , -- that is , most of them did . It is with those who fared forth resolutely into the night that we have to do ; the rest of the world is to be barred from any further connection with this little history . It is far out in the dreary country lane and not inside the warm hotel that we struggle to attain our end .