midnight
The baroness fondly hoped to induce her son by this means to come home earlier and spend less time with Mademoiselle des Touches . Such calculations of maternal jealousy were wasted . Day after day , Calyste 's visits to Les Touches became more frequent , and every night he came in later . The night before the day of which we speak it was midnight when he returned . The baroness , lost in maternal meditation , was setting her stitches with the rapidity of one absorbed in thought while engaged in manual labor . Whoever had seen her bending to the light of the lamp beneath the quadruply centennial hangings of that ancient room would have admired the sublimity of the picture . Fanny 's skin was so transparent that it was possible to read the thoughts that crossed her brow beneath it .