midnight
She was being pushed -- pushed towards the edge of her precipice , and it was only the working of Nature that she should lose her breath and snatch at strange things to stay herself . Between herself and her husband a sort of silence had grown . There were subjects of which they never spoke , and yet each knew that the other 's mind was given up to thought of them day and night . There were black midnight hours when Hester , lying awake in her bed , knew that Alec lay awake in his also . She had heard him many a time turn over with a caught breath and a smothered curse . She did not ask herself what he was thinking of . She knew .