midnight
For in our society there 's no law to control the King of the Fireside . He is master of property , happiness -- life almost . He is free to punish , to make happy or unhappy -- to ruin or to torture . He may kill a wife gradually , and be no more questioned than the Grand seignior who drowns a slave at midnight . He may make slaves and hypocrites of his children ; or friends and freemen ; or drive them into revolt and enmity against the natural law of love . I have heard politicians and coffee-house wiseacres talking over the newspaper , and railing at the tyranny of the French King , and the Emperor , and wondered how these -LRB- who are monarchs , too , in their way -RRB- govern their own dominions at home , where each man rules absolute . When the annals of each little reign are shown to the Supreme Master , under whom we hold sovereignty , histories will be laid bare of household tyrants as cruel as Amurath , and as savage as Nero , and as reckless and dissolute as Charles .