midnight
Was it for such cowardice as this that they had anointed him and received him as a servitor of the Church ? His first impulse was to go and relate his feebleness and failure to his bishop ; the next moment he remembered that even so much support as this he must not seek : to no living being must he tell this wretched blood-secret . The law which respects nothing would not respect the secrets of the confessional ; but he knew that all the human law in the world could not alter his own bondage to the duty he had with his own will accepted . It was past midnight when , with trembling limbs , he groped his way out of the porch of his church and found the entrance of the presbytery and climbed the stone stairs to his own chamber . Candida opened her door , and thrust her head through the aperture , and cried to him , -- `` Where have you been mooning all this while , and the lamp burning to waste , and your good bed yawning for you ? You are not a strong man enough to keep these hours , and for a priest they are not decent ones . '' `` Peace , woman ! ''