midnight
But days , months , and years dragged their slow course along , and no one heard tidings of him . She began to feel that , although she had forgiven him , he had forgotten her . Her father said she `` was weel quit o ' the ne'er - do-weel -- that he had always determined that he should not speak to her again , and he was glad that he had not attempted it . '' But his poor mother mourned for him as a stricken dove that is robbed of its young ; the tears fell upon her pillow at midnight , as she wept for her son , her only son , the child of her heart and hopes . Anxious and fruitless were her inquiries after him . As the mist of morning vanisheth , so had he departed from her sight ; and , like it , when the sun melteth it away , he was not . Mrs Mordington had a brother who had been many years in India , and having returned to Britain , he took up his residence in Ayrshire .