midnight
`` Good old Bruce , '' he said . He left the room , slowly , and sat alone in the library . It had struck deep , that even one God-fearing but not God-loving old man should think him unfit to sit in the church in which his father and mother had been married , from which they had been carried side by side for their long rest . It was midnight when he went up the broad staircase to his room . The following afternoon he dropped in to see Father Jennings , the gentle little priest who had been beloved by two generations of all denominations -- and those of none . Terry loved the old study , which in forty years had taken on something of the priest 's character . It was a comfortable room ; cheerful in its wide windows , warm with a bright hearthfire , and well worn with long years of service .