midnight
He felt that he must purify himself by some noble , generous sacrifice from this blindness of soul that now was terrifying . Milita no longer spent the nights caring for her mother and would go home , somewhat to the discomfiture of her husband , who had been rather pleased at this unexpected return to a bachelor 's life . Renovales did not sleep . After midnight when Cotoner went away he walked in silence through the brilliantly lighted rooms ; he prowled around the chamber -- entered it to see Josephina in bed , sweating , shaken from time to time by a fit of coughing or in a deathlike lethargy , so thin and small that the bed-clothes hardly showed the childlike outline of her body . Then the master passed the rest of the night in an armchair , smoking , his eyes staring but his brain drowsy with sleep . His thoughts were far away . There was no use in feeling ashamed of his cruelty ; he seemed bewitched by a mysterious power that was superior to his remorse .