midnight
But his face was hidden , and he vanished at the first outposts of the hamlet as she passed into Chagford alone . The cottage shadows fell velvety black in a shining silence ; their thatches were streaked , their slates meshed with silver ; their whitewashed walls looked strangely awake and alert and surrounded the woman with a sort of blind , hushed stare . One solitary patch of light peered like a weary eye from that side of the street which lay in shadow , and Chris , passing through the unbolted cottage door , walked up the narrow passage within and softly entered . Condolence and tears and buzz of sorrowful friends had passed away with the stroke of midnight . Now Mrs. Hicks sat alone with her dead and gazed upon his calm features and vaguely wondered how , after a life of such disappointment and failure and bitter discontent , he could look so peaceful . She knew every line that thought and trouble had ruled upon his face ; she remembered their coming ; and now , between her fits of grief , she scanned him close and saw that Death had wiped away the furrows here and there , and smoothed his forehead and rolled back the years from off him until his face reminded her of the strange , wayward child who was wont to live a life apart from his fellows , like some wild wood creature , and who had passed almost friendless through his boyhood . Fully he had filled her widowed life , and been at least a loving child , a good son .