midnight
`` We have yet a quarter of an hour ; we shall be in good time . '' So saying , he guided the pony to where some lights indicated the station of the railway , which here crossed the moor . There was just time to return the pony to the person at the station from whom it had been borrowed , and obtain their tickets , when the bell of the down-train sounded , and in a few minutes the Religious and her companions were on their way to Mowbray , whither a course of two hours carried them . It was two hours to midnight when they arrived at Mowbray station , which was about a quarter of a mile from the town . Labour had long ceased ; a beautiful heaven , clear and serene , canopied the city of smoke and toil ; in all directions rose the columns of the factories , dark and defined in the purple sky ; a glittering star sometimes hovering by the crest of their tall and tapering forms . The travellers proceeded in the direction of a suburb and approached the very high wall of an extensive garden . The moon rose as they reached it , tipped the trees with light , and revealed a lofty and centre portal , by the side of it a wicket at which Gerard rang .