midnight
Now inhaling the hallowed atmosphere of home , all the pure influences of his boyhood resumed their empire over his heart -- and he wondered that he could ever have mingled with the grosser elements of society . `` Blind ! '' repeated he to himself , while gazing on the calm , angelic countenance of Alice , so beautiful in its repose . `` Is it possible that a creature so fair and bright , dwells in the darkness of perpetual midnight ? Can no electric ray pierce the cloud that is folded over her vision ? Is there no power in science to remove the dark fillet that binds those celestial eyes , and pour in upon them the light of a new-born day ? '' While he thus gazed on the unseeing face , so near him that perhaps she might have had a vague consciousness of the intensity , the warmth of the gaze , Helen approached , and taking the hand of Alice , passed it softly over the features of her brother , as well as his profuse and clustering hair .