midnight
To court a glad forgetfulness ! In this alone lies hope , and , that sweetest of all sweet things , indifference . Not coward enough to compel death , he still longs for it ; he would slip away from all and sink into oblivion , and gladly deem himself and his sad history forgotten . `` To cease upon the midnight with no pain ? '' What sweeter , kinder fate could visit him than that for which Keats longed -- not vainly . Into his life , too , some smaller worries are thrown . The old man Slyme , the secretary , has been going rapidly from bad to worse , of late .