midnight
The sky up above me was thin and vague . But away in the east over France , behind long banks of soft dark cloud , it was thinner and rarer still , and seemed to throb with a little pulse of life . And behind the white curtains in the gray stone house , Carette lay sleeping . ... At midnight the girls had melted lead in an iron spoon , and dropped it into buckets of water , amid bubbles of laughter , to see what the occupations of their future husbands would be . They fished out the results with eager faces , and twisted them to suit their hopes . Carette 's piece came out a something which Jeanne Falla at once pronounced an anchor , but which young Torode said was a sword , and made it so by a skilful touch of the finger . ... The air had been very still , as though asleep like all things else except the sea .