twelve o'clock
It was to seem to him in retrospection that neither for the next half-hour began a sentence without this formula . It was as if they sought to use it as a master-word wherewith to reanimate the happinesses and sorrows of their common past , and as if they found the charm was potent to awaken the thin , powerless ghosts of emotions that were once despotic . For it was as if frail shadows and half-caught echoes were all they could evoke , it seemed to Charteris ; and yet these shadows trooped with a wild grace , and the echoes thrilled him with the sweet and piercing surprise of a bird 's call at midnight or of a bugle heard in prison . Then twelve o'clock was heralded by the College bell , and Pauline arose as though this equable deep-throated interruption of the music 's levity had been a signal . John Charteris saw her clearly now ; and she was beautiful . `` I must go . You will not ever quite forget me , Jack .