midnight
The house where she lived was in a lonely and desolate place , some two or three miles below us , on a sandy level , just elevated above the great salt marshes , stretching far away to the sea . The night set in dark and stormy ; a fierce northeasterly wind swept over the level waste , driving thick snow-clouds before it , shaking the doors and windows of the old house , and roaring in its vast chimney . The woman was dying when we arrived , and her drunken husband was sitting in stupid unconcern in the corner of the fireplace . A little after midnight she breathed her last . `` In the mean time the storm had grown more violent ; there was a blinding snow-fall in the air ; and we could feel the jar of the great waves as they broke upon the beach . '' ` It is a terrible night for sailors on the coast , ' I said , breaking our long silence with the dead . ` God grant them sea-room ! '