midnight
The perception of these details had its effect . She stood looking after him , then she turned slowly and made her way homewards across the Park . Two of her acquaintances passed her and lifted their hats , but she took no notice of them ; she did not see them . A picture was fixed in her mind -- a picture of a rolling plain , black as midnight , exhaling blackness , so that the air itself was black for some feet above the ground ; and into this cool and quiet darkness the moonbeams plunged out of a fiery sky and were lost . They dropped , she fancied , after their long flight , to their appointed haven of repose . The street door of her house gave on to a garden . Clarice walked along the pathway in front of the house towards the door of the hall .