midnight
I tell you , Hazard , I am sick at heart about our church work ; it is a failure . Never till this morning did I feel the whole truth , but the instant I got inside the doors it flashed upon me like St. Paul 's great light . The thing does not belong to our time or feelings . '' The conversation having thus come round to the subject which Mr. Hazard wanted to discuss , the three men plunged deep into serious talk which lasted till after midnight had struck from the neighboring church . _ Chapter II _ Punctually the next day at three o'clock , Esther Dudley appeared in her aunt 's drawing-room where she found half a dozen ladies chatting , or looking at Mr. Murray 's pictures in the front parlor . The lady of the house sat in an arm-chair before the fire in an inner room , talking with two other ladies of the board , one of whom , with an aggressive and superior manner , seemed finding fault with every thing except the Middle Ages and Pericles . `` A tailor who builds a palace to live in , '' said she , `` is a vulgar tailor , and an artist who paints the tailor and his palace as though he were painting a doge of Venice , is a vulgar artist . ''