midnight
`` Bless us ! I did n't suppose they 'd be home till long after midnight , '' said Katty , as she scurried away . It was n't the misthress , however ; only Mrs. Darling 's maid , to say that Mrs. Davies would not come home ; she would spend the night at Mrs. Darling 's , and Letty had come for her things . This necessitated Mrs. Maloney 's remaining all night to further look after Katty , and what more natural than that they should light Mrs. Davies 's lamp and spend a blissful hour in her simply furnished but pretty room , looking over the new gowns and garments and jimcracks , and so absorbed were they in this occupation that they took no heed of time ; and so it happened that the good old chaplain , coming shortly after midnight over from the hospital , whither he had been summoned to the bedside of a sorely-stricken trooper , rejoiced to see that Mrs. Davies , at least , had not gone to the dance , but was keeping wifely vigil in the sanctity of her own room , praying , probably , for the safety of the loved young husband now on perilous duty eighty miles away . At the corner , at the end of the long row of quarters , a solitary figure was standing . The chaplain recognized the beaver overcoat in the soft moonlight and the soldierly face under the forage-cap . `` Ah , Cranston !