nearly midnight
Mrs. Montgomery watched the effect of the speech and felt sore at heart . `` Poor man , '' thought she , `` he will never live to see it , '' and as she looked a second time saw that Mr. Verne had suddenly relapsed into that comatose state sadly akin to death . `` Thy will be done , '' murmured the watcher , and tenderly replacing the coverlid committed the prostrate form to the mercy of an Almighty Father . It is nearly midnight . Mrs. Verne had been prevailed upon -LRB- to use her own words -RRB- to attend a musical soiree given by a fashionable young matron in honor of her fifth wedding anniversary . Hubert Tracy now danced attendance upon his mother-in-law , elect and on the present occasion was her beau chevalier . He had taken leave of Marguerite with much reluctance .