midnight
Then her rush to the lamp . Her guilty feelings . The unconscious stealth of her tiptoeing to the landing outside . Her horror at the discovery that her obstruction to the staircase had been removed , and the chairs , as though to mock the puerility of her scheming , set in orderly fashion , side by side against the wall to make way for the midnight intruder . The closed door of the sick-room , which yielded to her touch and revealed the apparition of her father bending over her lover , and , with no uncertainty of movement , removing the bandage from the wounded neck . The terror of it all remained . So long as she lived she could never forget one single detail of it .