midnight
That housekeeper left , if I recollect rightly , two years after he came ; and another , whom I did not know , was her successor ; she lives there still . Time wore on at the Grange in its former pleasant way till Miss Cathy reached sixteen . On the anniversary of her birth we never manifested any signs of rejoicing , because it was also the anniversary of my late mistress 's death . Her father invariably spent that day alone in the library ; and walked , at dusk , as far as Gimmerton kirkyard , where he would frequently prolong his stay beyond midnight . Therefore Catherine was thrown on her own resources for amusement . This twentieth of March was a beautiful spring day , and when her father had retired , my young lady came down dressed for going out , and said she asked to have a ramble on the edge of the moor with me : Mr. Linton had given her leave , if we went only a short distance and were back within the hour . ` So make haste , Ellen ! '