midnight
I closed the house door softly behind me . The sky had become stormy since the afternoon , luminous with the full moon , but strewn with grey and buff-colored vapors ; every now and then the moon disappeared entirely . Not a creature abroad ; the tall gaunt houses staring in the moonlight . I know not why , I took a roundabout way to the Corte , past one or two church doors , whence issued the faint flicker of midnight mass . For a moment I felt a temptation to enter one of them ; but something seemed to restrain me . I caught snatches of the Christmas hymn . I felt myself beginning to be unnerved , and hastened towards the Corte .