midnight
My lord was cold , and my Harry was likely to die : and my brain was in a fever ; and we had no wine . But now -- now you are come again , bringing your sheaves with you , my dear . '' She burst into a wild flood of weeping as she spoke ; she laughed and sobbed on the young man 's heart , crying out wildly , `` bringing your sheaves with you -- your sheaves with you ! '' As he had sometimes felt , gazing up from the deck at midnight into the boundless starlit depths overhead , in a rapture of devout wonder at that endless brightness and beauty -- in some such a way now , the depth of this pure devotion -LRB- which was , for the first time , revealed to him -RRB- quite smote upon him , and filled his heart with thanksgiving . Gracious God , who was he , weak and friendless creature , that such a love should be poured out upon him ? Not in vain -- not in vain has he lived -- hard and thankless should he be to think so -- that has such a treasure given him . What is ambition compared to that , but selfish vanity ?