midnight
All spoke of luxury and repose , save the anxious and sad countenance of its mistress . It was late , and she had watched anxiously for her husband for many long hours . She drew out her gold and diamond repeater , and looked at it . It was long past midnight . She sighed as she remembered the pleasant evenings they had passed together , as her eye fell on the books they had read together , and on her piano and harp , now silent , and thought of all he had said and looked in those days when each was all to the other . She was aroused from this melancholy revery by a loud knocking at the street door . She hastened to open it , but started back at the sight it disclosed -- her husband borne by four men .