midnight
I suppose there might have been something ridiculous in a confession of this kind , but I liked my new friend so much that for me it did n't detract from his dignity . `` She tells me -- from behind the door -- that she will let me know if he is worse . '' `` It 's very good of her , '' said Miss Ambient I had exchanged a glance with Mark in which it is possible that he read that my pity for him was untinged with contempt , though I know not why he should have cared ; and as , presently , his sister got up and took her bedroom candlestick , he proposed that we should go back to his study . We sat there till after midnight ; he put himself into his slippers , into an old velvet jacket , lighted an ancient pipe , and talked considerably less than he had done before . There were longish pauses in our communion , but they only made me feel that we had advanced in intimacy . They helped me , too , to understand my friend 's personal situation , and to perceive that it was by no means the happiest possible . When his face was quiet , it was vaguely troubled ; it seemed to me to show that for him , too , life was a struggle , as it has been for many another man of genius .