midnight
Their growing love thus accommodated itself to dark and clear nights . Their hearts were ever on the alert , and a little shade sufficed to sweeten the pleasure of their embrace , and soften their laughter . This dearly-loved retreat -- so gay in the moonshine , so strangely thrilling in the gloom -- seemed an inexhaustible source of both gaiety and silent emotion . They would remain there until midnight , while the town dropped off to sleep and the lights in the windows of the Faubourg went out one by one . They were never disturbed in their solitude . At that late hour children were no longer playing at hide-and-seek behind the piles of planks . Occasionally , when the young couple heard sounds in the distance -- the singing of some workmen as they passed along the road , or conversation coming from the neighbouring sidewalks -- they would cast stealthy glances over the Aire Saint-Mittre .