midnight
She gathered him in her arms , as she had used to do in his childhood ; and so we left them . `` AS ONE WHOM HIS MOTHER COMFORTETH . '' Ay , Prophet of Israel , thou wert wise . John and I sat over the study fire till long after midnight . Many an anxious watch I had kept with him , but none sadder than this . Because now , for the first time , our house was divided against itself . A sorrow had entered it , not from without but from within -- a sorrow which we could not meet and bear , as a family .