midnight
She tried to call up a bloom to her pale cheek , and a smile to her quivering lip , but she was no adept in the art of dissimulation , and when she entered the sitting room , Helen was the first to notice her altered countenance . It was fortunate for all present that Alice had seated herself at the piano , at the solicitation of Louis , and commenced a brilliant overture . Alice had always loved music , but now that she had learned it as an art , in all its perfectness , it had become the one passion of her life . She lived in the world of sound , and forgot the midnight that surrounded her . It was impossible to look upon her without feeling the truth , that if God closes with Bastile bars one avenue of the senses , He opens another with widening gates `` on golden hinges moving . '' Alice trembled with ecstacy at her own exquisite melody , like the nightingale whose soft plumage quivers on its breast as it sings . She would raise her sightless eyes to Heaven , following the upward strain with feelings of the most intense devotion .