midnight
Sibyll had been taught , even as a child , some accomplishments little vouchsafed then to either sex , -- she could read and write ; and Margaret had not so wholly lost , in the sterner North , all reminiscence of the accomplishments that graced her father 's court as to neglect the education of those brought up in her household . Much attention was given to music , for it soothed the dark hours of King Henry ; the blazoning of missals or the lives of saints , with the labours of the loom , were also among the resources of Sibyll 's girlhood , and by these last she had , from time to time , served to assist the maintenance of the little family of which , child though she was , she became the actual head . But latterly -- that is , for the last few weeks -- even these sources failed her ; for as more peaceful times allowed her neighbours to interest themselves in the affairs of others , the dark reports against Warner had revived . His name became a by-word of horror ; the lonely light at the lattice burning till midnight , against all the early usages and habits of the day ; the dark smoke of the furnace , constant in summer as in winter , scandalized the religion of the place far and near . And finding , to their great dissatisfaction , that the king 's government and the Church interfered not for their protection , and unable themselves to volunteer any charges against the recluse -LRB- for the cows in the neighbourhood remained provokingly healthy -RRB- , they came suddenly , and , as it were by one of those common sympathies which in all times the huge persecutor we call the PUBLIC manifests when a victim is to be crushed , to the pious resolution of starving where they could not burn . Why buy the quaint devilries of the wizard 's daughter ? -- no luck could come of it .