midnight
Her whole face told of years of bitterness , and a grim defiance of death , which sent a shudder through Beulah , as she listened to the panting breath . Cornelia saturated her handkerchief with some delicate perfume from a crystal vase , and , passing it over her face , continued : `` They tell me it is time I should be confirmed ; talk vaguely of seeing preachers , and taking the sacrament , and preparing myself , as if I could be frightened into religion and the church . My mother seems just to have waked up to a knowledge of my spiritual condition , as she calls it . Ah , Beulah , it is all dark before me ; black , black as midnight ! I am going down to an eternal night ; down to annihilation . Yes , Beulah ; soon I shall descend into what Schiller 's Moor calls the ` nameless yonder . ' Before long I shall have done with mystery ; shall be sunk into unbroken rest . ''