midnight
But although she had to brace her body from yielding , her mind -LRB- and it is the curse of intellectual women of individual powers that the mind never , in any circumstances , ceases to function -RRB- realized that while the human will may be strong enough to banish memories , and readjust the lonely soul , its most triumphant acts may be annihilated by the physical contact of its mate . Unless replaced . Fool that she had been merely to have buried the memory of this man by an act of will . She should have taken a commonplace lover , or husband , put out that flaming midnight torch with the standardizing light of day . Her mind seemed to be darting from peak to peak in a swift and dazzling flight as he talked rapidly and brokenly , kissing her cheek , her neck , straining her so close to him that she could hardly breathe . Suddenly it poised above the memory of an old book of Renan 's , `` The Abbess Juarre , '' in which the eminent skeptic had somewhat clumsily attempted to demonstrate that if the world unmistakably announced its finish within three days the inhabitants would give themselves up to an orgy of love . Well , her world might end to-morrow .