midnight
Sometimes she could see the moon-rays through the cracks of the balcony door , as she lay in her bed . She could see them against the darkness , and the ends of them were straight white lines and round white spots on the floor and on the walls . Her thoughts played in them , and her maiden fancies caught them and followed them lightly out into the white night and far away to the third world , which is dreamland . And in her dreams she sang to the midnight stars , and clasped her bare arms round the moon 's white throat , kissing the moon-lady 's pale and passionate cheek , till she lost herself in the mysterious eyes , and found herself once more , bathed in cool star-showers , the queen of a tender dream . There sat the abbess , in the only chair , stolid , righteous , imposing . The incarnation and representative of the ninety and nine who need no forgiveness , exasperatingly and mathematically virtuous as a dogma , a woman against whom no sort of reproach could be brought , and at the mere sight of whom false witnesses would shrivel up and die , like jelly-fish in the sun . She not only approved of the convent life , but she liked it .