midnight
`` Oh , most unfortunate about him -- frightfully sorry , but it really could n't be helped , if he had n't fought back we would n't have had to shoot him . You see , the old devil murdered Sturm to-night , for some reason I daresay you understand better than I : we found a paper on the beggar , written in Chinese , apparently an order for his assassination signed by you . Half a mo ' : I 'll read it to you ... '' But if Karslake translated Victor 's message , as edited by the hand of Nogam , it was to a wire as deaf as it was dumb . With exceeding care to avoid noise , Sofia unlocked the door and for the second time since midnight let herself stealthily out into the darkened corridor ; but now with the difference that she did what she did in full command of all her wits and faculties , with no subjective war of wills to hinder and confuse her , and with a definite object clearly visioned -- a goal no less distant than the railway station . Lanyard had promised that Karslake should come for her within an hour or two and take her away with him , back to London and the arms of the father whom , although so recently revealed and accepted , she had already begun to love ; if indeed it were not true that she had in filial sense fallen in love with Lanyard at first sight , through intuition , that afternoon in the Café des Exiles so long , so very long ago ! Well : she might as well await Karslake at the station . It would be simpler , she would be more at ease there , would breathe more freely once she turned her back on Frampton Court and all its hateful associations .