midnight
Crowding into my heart without giving it time even to breathe , they would cause my whole being to become lost in a wondrous chaos . Yet this spiritual ferment was not sufficiently strong wholly to undo me . For that I was too fanciful , and the fact saved me . With the passing of my mother 's illness the midnight meetings and long conversations between myself and Pokrovski came to an end . Only occasionally did we exchange a few words with one another -- words , for the most part , that were of little purport or substance , yet words to which it delighted me to apportion their several meanings , their peculiar secret values . My life had now become full -- I was happy ; I was quietly , restfully happy . Thus did several weeks elapse ... .