midnight
For , with a strange commingling of clear-sightedness and submission to authority , he still believed that he had done perfectly right in giving up his claim to the Scotch estate , and yet , with all his heart , desired to feel that he had done wrong . And when the words with which Father Cristoforo had reproached him came back to his mind , his burden seemed greater than he could bear . With a moan of pain he sank down close beside the altar-steps . And there , through the midnight hours , he lay alone and wrestled with himself . It was no use . Everything fell from him in that hour except that faith and that love which had been the controlling powers of his life . He had loved Brian as a brother ; and he had done well : he had loved Elizabeth -- though he had not known that the dreaming fancies which had lately centred round her deserved the name which the Prior had given to them -- and he had not done ill ; and it was right that he should give to them , what might , perhaps , avail to make their lives a little happier -- at any rate all that he had to give .