midnight
Then , with the bottle on the table beside her , she sat down , her hands in her lap , her eyes on space . She was as motionless as a statue , save for the breaths that lifted her chest . She sat that way for a long time , her only movements a shifting of her blank gaze or a respiration deeper than the others . She saw nothing of what her glance rested on , heard none of the decreasing midnight sounds in the street or the house about her . An intensity of feeling had lifted her to a plane where the familiar and habitual had no more place than had premonitions and forebodings . `` The Zingara '' had run its course and given place to `` The Gray Lady , '' which had not pleased the public . The papers said the leading role did not show Miss Lopez off to the greatest advantage and the audiences thinned , for Miss Lopez had transformed the Albion from a house of light opera to a temple enshrining a star .