midnight
Good night . '' And , with a nod to Ramsdell , he was gone . Opdyke was not asleep within an hour . Moreover , although Ramsdell did know what to do , and did it , the stroke of midnight found him still staring at the dark with burning eyes , while the pillowcase underneath his head hissed faintly to the steady throbbing of his temples . The noxious , deadly poison of Mrs. Brenton 's talk had made its insidious way through and through his system , loosening its carefully maintained tensions , overthrowing its balances , stirring up all the old , forgotten dregs of rebellious restlessness and turning them into his blood . It mattered nothing that Reed Opdyke recognized the fact that it was poison , mattered nothing that he despised it and fought against it with every antidote within his reach . The harm was done ; it would take long and long to undo it , to bring him back to his old mental health once more .