about ten
o'clock
At midnight I was seated in the drawing-room of the Manor . Before me , dressed in plain black which made her beautiful face look even paler than it was , sat my love , bowed , despondent , silent . The household , although still astir , was hushed by the presence of the dead ; the long old room itself , usually so bright and pleasant , seemed full of dark shadows , for the lamp , beneath its yellow shade , burned but dimly , and everywhere there reigned an air of mourning . Half-demented by grief , my love had arrived in hot haste about ten o'clock , and , rushing to poor Mary 's room , had thrown herself upon her knees beside the poor inanimate clay ; for , even though of late differences might have existed between them , the sisters were certainly devoted to each other . The scene in that room was an unhappy one , for although Ethelwynn betrayed nothing by her lips , I saw by her manner that she was full of remorse over the might-have-beens , and that she was bitterly reproaching herself for some fact of which I had no knowledge . Of the past we had not spoken . She had been too full of grief , too utterly overcome by the tragedy of the situation .