midnight
At other times he would place her against the gable of the châlet , so that the moonlight fell upon her , and then he would plunge into the wood and walk its whole length , so that , as he wound his way back through the intervening brakes , her face would come and go , glimmering away off through the leafage , beckoning to him to return . And once he thought he heard her call his name very softly through the wood . That may have been an illusion , but it was during these days that he did actually hear her speak for the first time . He had been writing till past midnight , with her smile just above him , and when he had turned out the lamp and was moving to the door through the vague flickering light of the fire , he distinctly heard a voice very luxurious and tender say `` Antony , '' just behind him . It was hardly more than a whisper , but its sweetness thrilled his blood , and half in joy and fear he turned to her again . But she was only smiling inscrutably as before , and she spoke no more for that night . At the bottom of the valley , approached by sunken honeysuckle lanes that seemed winding into the centre of the earth , lay three black ponds , almost hidden in a _ cul-de-sac _ of woodland .