nearly midnight
Ah ! if she could see Cyril just for a minute ! In September , 1916 , Saturday still came before Sunday , in spite of the war . For Edward Pierson this Saturday had been a strenuous day , and even now , at nearly midnight , he was still conning his just-completed sermon . A patriot of patriots , he had often a passionate longing to resign his parish , and go like his curate for a chaplain at the Front . It seemed to him that people must think his life idle and sheltered and useless . Even in times of peace he had been sensitive enough to feel the cold draughty blasts which the Church encounters in a material age .