midnight
`` What a nervous fool I am ! Is this all my love has done for me -- made me like a frightened child , starting at shadows ? '' He turned abruptly , and went within to seek his own room . It was just midnight . Lights were being extinguished in the public rooms and corridors -- silence and sleep were settling down upon the vast building . Colonel Estcourt exchanged his evening clothes for the comfort of dressing-gown and slippers , and then threw himself into an easy chair before the fire which was blazing brightly and cheerfully in the grate . It was the conventional hotel bedroom .