midnight
The aching , panting bliss that he felt , the energy compressed , held back , straining at the leash , wanted night and isolation . So it could better dream of day and the clasp of that other that with him would make one . Now he walked and now stood , his eyes upon the mounting orb or the greater stars that it could not dim , and now he stretched himself in the summer heath . At last , not far from midnight , he came to that face of Glenfernie Hill below the old wall , to the home stream and the bit of thick wood where once , in boyhood , he had lain with covered face under the trees and little by little had put from his mind `` The Cranes of Ibycus . '' The moonlight was all broken here . Shafts of black and white lay inextricably crossed and mingled . Alexander passed through the little wood and climbed , with the secure step of old habit , the steep , rough path to the pine without the wall , there stooped and came through the broken wall to the moon-silvered court , and so to the door left open for him .