midnight
` Very well , Susan -- you are a good girl , and here is a dollar for you , ' said the lady , and then added -- ` you will be sure to admit him when he knocks ? ' ` Oh , yes , ma'am , ' replied the maid ; and thanking her mistress , she withdrew . Left alone , the guilty , adulterous woman fell into a voluptuous reverie , in which she pictured to herself the delights which she anticipated from her approaching interview with her sable lover . The possibility of her husband 's remaining at home that evening , thereby preventing that interview , did not once obtrude itself upon her mind -- so regularly had he absented himself from home every night during the preceding two or three weeks ; and as he had never returned before midnight , she apprehended no difficulty in getting her paramour out of the house undiscovered by him . The conduct of this woman will doubtless appear very extraordinary and unaccountable to those who have not studied human nature very deeply ; while the eccentricity of her passion , and the singular object of her desires , will excite disgust . But to the shrewd and intelligent observer of the female heart and its many impulses , the preferences of this frail lady are devoid of mystery . They are readily accounted for -- pampered with luxury , and surrounded by all the appliances of a voluptuous leisure , a morbid craving for _ unusual indulgences _ had commingled with her passions -- a raging desire , and mad appetite for a _ monstrous _ or _ unnatural _ intrigue -- and hence her disgraceful _ liaison _ with the black .