midnight
Perhaps Blake 's night trip was not to a secret conference . Perhaps The Sycamores was not the rendezvous . But there was a chance that all three of these conjectures were correct . And if so , there was a chance , -- aye , more , a probability -- that there would be further midnight trysts . Bruce had fallen into the habit of dropping in occasionally for a few minutes at the end of an evening 's speaking to tell Katherine how matters seemed to be progressing . When he called that night toward ten he was surprised to be directed around to the summer-house . His surprise was all the more because the three months ' drought had that afternoon been broken , and the rain was now driving down in gusts and there was a far rumbling of thunder that threatened a nearer and a fiercer cannonading .