midnight
Nothing could change the old woman 's determination ; and her master , who only feared , but did not really expect the long-deferred catastrophe , was obliged to consent to her staying . The sudden drying of the well at such a time was the most alarming sign ; for he remembered that the same thing had been observed just before great mountain-slides . This long rain , too , was just the kind of cause which was likely to loosen the strata of rock piled up in the ledges ; if the dreaded event should ever come to pass , it would be at such a time . He paced his chamber uneasily until long past midnight . If the morning came without accident , he meant to have a careful examination made of all the rents and fissures above , of their direction and extent , and especially whether , in case of a mountain-slide , the huge masses would be like to reach so far to the east and so low down the declivity as the mansion . At two o'clock in the morning he was dozing in his chair . Old Sophy had lain down on her bed , and was muttering in troubled dreams .