midnight
But now he grows more uneasy still , for the gate goes again , and still another footfall is heard approaching through the darkness . `` That is James Stockbridge . I should know that step among a thousand . Whether brushing through the long grass of an English meadow in May time , or quietly pacing up and down the orange alley in the New World , between the crimson snow and the blazing west ; or treading lightly across the wet ground at black midnight , when the cattle are restless , or the blacks are abroad ; or even , I should think , staggering on the slippery deck , when the big grey seas are booming past , and the good ship seems plunging down to destruction . '' He had loved Mary dearly since she was almost a child ; but she , poor pretty fool , used to turn him to ridicule , and make him fetch and carry for her like a dog . He was handsomer , cleverer , stronger , and better tempered than George Hawker , and yet she had no eyes for him , or his good qualities . She liked him in a sort of way ; nay , it might even be said that she was fond of him .