midnight
As she turned from the instrument his head drooped over her knee . She laid her hand on his clustering curls , bethought herself , and left the room . Robert wandered out as in a dream . At midnight he found himself on a solitary hill-top , seated in the heather , with a few tiny fir-trees about him , and the sounds of a wind , ethereal as the stars overhead , flowing through their branches : he heard the sound of it , but it did not touch him . Where was God ? In him and his question . If Mary St. John had been an ordinary woman , and if , notwithstanding , Robert had been in love with her , he would have done very little in preparation for the coming session .