midnight
I ca n't -- -- '' She broke off there , and said no more . But they clasped each other again in a last embrace . The Last Conflict In the second week of September , Maggie was again sitting in her lonely room , battling with the old shadowy enemies that were forever slain and rising again . It was past midnight , and the rain was beating heavily against the window , driven with fitful force by the rushing , loud-moaning wind . For the day after Lucy 's visit there had been a sudden change in the weather ; the heat and drought had given way to cold variable winds , and heavy falls of rain at intervals ; and she had been forbidden to risk the contemplated journey until the weather should become more settled . In the counties higher up the Floss the rains had been continuous , and the completion of the harvest had been arrested . And now , for the last two days , the rains on this lower course of the river had been incessant , so that the old men had shaken their heads and talked of sixty years ago , when the same sort of weather , happening about the equinox , brought on the great floods , which swept the bridge away , and reduced the town to great misery .