midnight
`` But of course we must all know some time , '' said Rose discontentedly . `` Catharine knows already . '' * * * * * Meynell passed that evening in his study , after some hours spent in the Christmas business of a large parish . His mind was full of agitation , and when midnight struck , ushering in Christmas Eve , he was still undecided as to his precise course . Among the letters of the day lying scattered beside him on the floor there was yet further evidence of the power of Barron 's campaign . There were warm expressions indeed of sympathy and indignation to be found among them , but on the whole Meynell realized that his own side 's belief in him was showing some signs of distress , while the attack upon him was increasing in violence . His silence even to his most intimate friends , even to his Bishop ; the disappearance from England of the other persons named in the scandal ; the constant elaborations and embellishments of the story as it passed from mouth to mouth -- these things were telling against him steadily and disastrously .