midnight
`` Then I renounce her ! I renounce love , I renounce happiness . Welcome solitude , welcome despair , if they are the entrances to thy dark and sublime secret . '' `` I will not take thy answer now ; at midnight thou shalt give it in one word , -- ay , or no ! Farewell till then ! '' The mystic waved his hand , and descending rapidly , was seen no more . Glyndon rejoined his impatient and wondering friend ; but Merton , gazing on his face , saw that a great change had passed there .