ten o'clock
It was ten o'clock before he went home . He had been very silent all the evening , and had sat soberly in the great best rocking-chair , which was , in a way , his throne of state , with Sylvia on the sofa on his right . Many a time she had dreamed that he came over there and sat down beside her , and that night it had come to pass . Just before ten o'clock he had arisen hesitatingly ; she thought it was to take leave , but she sat waiting and trembling . They had sat in the twilight and young moonlight all the evening . Richard had checked her when she attempted to light a candle . That had somehow made the evening seem strange , and freighted with consequences ; and besides the white light of the moon , full of mystic influence , there was something subtler and more magnetic , which could sway more than the tides , even the passions of the human heart , present , and they both felt it .