midnight
`` Winnie , you 're positively lowbred to show such curiosity ! '' I exclaimed , angrily -- the more so , that I had the house key in my pocket at that moment . But I was glad I had not told them of Vicky Van 's letter to me ! I waited until well past midnight , and then , after seeing the post patrol pass Vicky 's door , I softly went out of my own house , and across the street . I walked calmly up the steps of Vicky 's home , and sadly put the latchkey in the door -- for the last time . I felt as if I were performing funeral rites , and I entered and closed the door behind me , softly , as one does in the house of death . I went up the stairs , in the gloom .