midnight
There was Harriet Ray , sealed up tight in the vacuum of inherited opinion , where not a breath of fresh sensation could get at her : there could be no call to rescue young ladies so secured from the perils of reality ! Undine had no such traditional safeguards -- Ralph guessed Mrs. Spragg 's opinions to be as fluid as her daughter 's -- and the girl 's very sensitiveness to new impressions , combined with her obvious lack of any sense of relative values , would make her an easy prey to the powers of folly . He seemed to see her -- as he sat there , pressing his fists into his temples -- he seemed to see her like a lovely rock-bound Andromeda , with the devouring monster Society careering up to make a mouthful of her ; and himself whirling down on his winged horse -- just Pegasus turned Rosinante for the nonce -- to cut her bonds , snatch her up , and whirl her back into the blue ... Some two months later than the date of young Marvell 's midnight vigil , Mrs. Heeny , seated on a low chair at Undine 's knee , gave the girl 's left hand an approving pat as she laid aside her lapful of polishers . `` There ! I guess you can put your ring on again , '' she said with a laugh of jovial significance ; and Undine , echoing the laugh in a murmur of complacency , slipped on the fourth finger of her recovered hand a band of sapphires in an intricate setting . Mrs. Heeny took up the hand again .