midnight
At the end of the village he paused before the darkened front of the church . He stood there a moment , breathing quickly , and looking up and down the street , in which not another figure moved . The pitch of the Corbury road , below lawyer Varnum 's spruces , was the favourite coasting-ground of Starkfield , and on clear evenings the church corner rang till late with the shouts of the coasters ; but to-night not a sled darkened the whiteness of the long declivity . The hush of midnight lay on the village , and all its waking life was gathered behind the church windows , from which strains of dance-music flowed with the broad bands of yellow light . The young man , skirting the side of the building , went down the slope toward the basement door . To keep out of range of the revealing rays from within he made a circuit through the untrodden snow and gradually approached the farther angle of the basement wall . Thence , still hugging the shadow , he edged his way cautiously forward to the nearest window , holding back his straight spare body and craning his neck till he got a glimpse of the room .