two in the morning
Yes , I must lie still and feign sleep , with every nerve and fibre leaping within me , lest the she-devil below should suspect me of suspicions ! It was with her I had to cope for the next four-and-twenty hours ; and she filled me with a greater present terror than all those villains at the hall ; for had not their poor little helpless captive described her as `` about the worst of the gang ? '' To think that my love lay helpless there in the hands of those wretches ; and to think that her lover lay helpless here in the supervision of this vile virago ! It must have been one or two in the morning when I stole to my sitting-room window , opened it , and sat down to think steadily , with the counterpane about my shoulders . The moon sailed high and almost full above the clouds ; these were dispersing as the night wore on , and such as remained were of a beautiful soft tint between white and gray . The sky was too light for stars , and beneath it the open country stretched so clear and far that it was as though one looked out at noonday through slate-colored glass . Down the dewy slope below my window a few calves fed with toothless mouthings ; the beck was very audible , the oak-trees less so ; but for these peaceful sounds the stillness and the solitude were equally intense .