midnight
The minister went up the steps . It was an obscure night in early May . An unvaried pall of cloud muffled the whole expanse of sky from zenith to horizon . If the same multitude which had stood as eye-witnesses while Hester Prynne sustained her punishment could now have been summoned forth , they would have discerned no face above the platform nor hardly the outline of a human shape , in the dark grey of the midnight . But the town was all asleep . There was no peril of discovery . The minister might stand there , if it so pleased him , until morning should redden in the east , without other risk than that the dank and chill night air would creep into his frame , and stiffen his joints with rheumatism , and clog his throat with catarrh and cough ; thereby defrauding the expectant audience of to-morrow 's prayer and sermon .