midnight
In childhood Guy Hartwell had been taught by his nurse to regard the melancholy chant as ominous of evil ; but as years threw their shadows over his heart , darkening the hopes of his boyhood , the sad notes of the lonely bird became gradually soothing , and now in the prime of life he loved to listen to the shy visitor , and ceased to remember that it boded ill . With an ardent love for the beautiful , in all its Protean phases , he enjoyed communion with nature as only an imaginative , aesthetical temperament can . This keen appreciation of beauty had been fostered by travel and study . Over the vast studio of nature he had eagerly roamed ; midnight had seen him gazing enraptured on the loveliness of Italian scenery , and found him watching the march of constellations from the lonely heights of the Hartz ; while the thunder tones of awful Niagara had often hushed the tumults of his passionate heart , and bowed his proud head in humble adoration . He had searched the storehouses of art , and collected treasures that kindled divine aspirations in his soul , and wooed him for a time from the cemetery of memory . With a nature so intensely aesthetical , and taste so thoroughly cultivated , he had , in a great measure , assimilated his home to the artistic beau ideal . Now as he stood inhaling the perfumed air , he forgot the little sufferer a few yards off -- forgot that Azrail stood on the threshold , beckoning her to brave the dark floods ; and , as his whole nature became permeated -LRB- so to speak -RRB- by the intoxicating beauty that surrounded him , he extended his arms , and exclaimed triumphantly : `` Truly thou art my mother , dear old earth !