midnight
`` Of all places in the world , to think that I should be invited there , '' he mused . `` While I have just been wondering how they took Faynie 's elopement -- and never hearing from her since -- and wondering how in the world I was to discover all that -- lo ! a way is opened to me ! '' Then his thoughts flew back to that stormy wedding night , and that midnight scene in the little inn , when the girl he had just wedded , believing her to be an heiress , revealed to him the exasperating truth , that only that night her father had disinherited her , making a new will in favor of her stepmother and her daughter Claire . The plan which Halloran had laid out was to wait a reasonable time , then put in an appearance , stating that he was Faynie 's husband , and that she had just died , and claim her portion of the estate . Every detail had been most carefully mapped out ; but here he saw an easier way of gaining that same fortune without the trouble of litigation -- marry the girl Claire . They would never know anything about that previous marriage with Faynie , and the dead could tell no secrets .