midnight
She was bugle , banner , sunrise , of his inmost ambition and rapture . And without a warning , she fled ; her features were lost ; his power of imagining them wrestled with vapour ; the effort contracted his outlook . But if she left him blind of her , she left him with no lessened bigness of heart . He frankly believed in her revelation of a greater world and a livelier earth , a flying earth and a world wealthier than grouped history in heroic marvels : he fell back on the exultation of his having seen her , and on the hope for the speedy coming of midnight , when the fountain of her in the miniature would be seen and drunk of at his full leisure , and his glorious elation of thrice man almost up to mounting spirit would be restored to make him worthy of the vision . Meanwhile Caroline had withdrawn and the lord of Earlsfont was fretting at his theme . He had decided not to be a party in the sale of either of his daughter 's estates : let her choose other agents : if the iniquity was committed , his hands would be clean of it . Mr. Adister spoke by way of prelude to the sketch of ` this prince ' whose title was a lurid delusion .