midnight
who would hear her plea , even though she boldly narrated all the truth , in behalf of the prisoner ? She maddened as she thought on all these difficulties ; her blood grew fevered , a thick haze overspread her senses , and she raved at last in the most wild delirium . Some days went by in her unconsciousness , and when she at length grew calm -- when the fever of her mind had somewhat subsided -- she opened her eyes and found , to her great surprise , her uncle sitting beside her couch . It was midnight ; and this was the hour he had usually chosen when making his visits to his family . In these stolen moments , his attendance was chiefly given to that hapless orphan , whose present sufferings he well knew were in great part attributable to himself . The thought smote him , for , in reference to her , all feeling had not yet departed from his soul . There was still a lurking sensibility -- a lingering weakness of humanity -- one of those pledges which nature gives of her old affiliation , and which she never entirely takes away from the human heart .