midnight
Gradually her mysterious irritation died away . The gentleness of the summer night , the serenity of the moonlight , the sea-like murmur of the forest , these things sank little by little into their hearts , and in the calm they made , youth and love spoke again , siren voices , with the old magic . And when at last they loitered home , they moved in a trance of feeling which wanted no words . The moon dropped slowly into the western trees ; midnight chimes came to them from the villages which ring the forest ; and a playing wind sprang up about them , cooling the girl 's hot cheeks , and freshening the verdurous ways through which they passed . But in the years which came after , whenever David allowed his mind to dwell for a short shuddering instant on these days at Fontainebleau , it often occurred to him to wonder whether during their wild dream he had ever for one hour been truly happy . At the height of their passion had there been any of that exquisite give and take between them which may mark the simplest love of the rudest lovers , but which is in its essence moral , a thing not of the senses but of the soul ? There is nothing else which is vital to love .