midnight
It was sad and pitiful enough to be mean and tyrannical , without being a thief and a robber . I really pitied Ham , and if he had not destroyed the letter , I should have gone to him , and begged him to retrace his steps . I knew him too well to take such a course now , and I lay thinking of his crime , till , overcome with weariness , I went to sleep . If I did not get up as early as usual the next morning , none of my tyrants were stirring in season to abuse me for lying abed so late ; for they , like myself , had not retired until after midnight . The first thing that came to my mind in the morning was the scene I had witnessed in the post-office . The secret seemed to burn in my soul , and I wanted some means of getting rid of it . I actually pitied Ham , and would gladly have availed myself of any method of saving him from the crime -- of saving him from himself , rather than from the penalty of the offence , for even then the crime seemed to me to be worse than the punishment , and more to be dreaded .