midnight
In fact , I dared not speak even to her , as if there were anything beyond the most common event in life in our preparing thus to leave the house of blood by stealth in the dead of night . She gave me directions -- short condensed directions , without reasons -- just as you do to a child ; and like a child I obeyed her . She went often to the door and listened ; and often , too , she went to the window , and looked anxiously out . For me , I saw nothing but her , and I dared not let my eyes wander from her for a minute ; and I heard nothing in the deep midnight silence but her soft movements , and the heavy beating of my own heart . At last she took my hand , and led me in the dark , through the salon , once more into the terrible gallery , where across the black darkness the windows admitted pale sheeted ghosts of light upon the floor . Clinging to her I went ; unquestioning -- for she was human sympathy to me after the isolation of my unspeakable terror . On we went , turning to the left instead of to the right , past my suite of sitting-rooms where the gilding was red with blood , into that unknown wing of the castle that fronted the main road lying parallel far below .