midnight
For in my arms now there is just a very pretty girl who is not over-careful in her dealings with young men , thought Jurgen , as their lips met . Well , all life is a compromise ; and a pretty girl is something tangible , at any rate . So he laughed , triumphantly , and prepared for the sequel . But as Jurgen laughed triumphantly , with his arm beneath the head of Dorothy , and with the tender face of Dorothy passive beneath his lips , and with unreasonable wistfulness in his heart , the castle bell tolled midnight . What followed was curious : for as Wednesday passed , the face of Dorothy altered , her flesh roughened under his touch , and her cheeks fell away , and fine lines came about her eyes , and she became the Countess Dorothy whom Jurgen remembered as Heitman Michael 's wife . There was no doubt about it , in that be-drenching moonlight : and she was leering at him , and he was touching her everywhere , this horrible lascivious woman , who was certainly quite old enough to know better than to permit such liberties . And her breath was sour and nauseous .