midnight
Then he placed him gently on the floor , having first made of his coat a bed , and went to the window and flung back the shutters . He smoked quietly as the minutes went by , waiting impatiently for his wife to return . It seemed to him monstrous that the boy who was to inherit a fortune should be sleeping on the dirty floor wrapped in an old coat ; that an Arab , a mere fellah , should amuse his son and play with him , when Greek nurses were to be hired in Alexandria had one only the money . Long after midnight he heard a step on the stairs , and a minute after the door opened . He recognised his wife 's footsteps , and he rose to meet her . As she came into the room she looked quickly round , and seeing her son went toward him and kissed him . Gregorio , half afraid , stood by the window watching her .