midnight
He recalled stories in which he had read of persons separated by great distances communicating with each other by some species of spiritual telegraphy ; and a conviction took possession of him that now , if ever -- now as the old year was about to go out and the new year come in -- he could call to Nina across the unknown void that lay between them , and that she would hear and perchance respond . Surely , on New-Year 's Eve , Nina would be thinking of her friends in London ; and , if their earnest and anxious thoughts could but meet her half-way , might there not be some sudden understanding , some recognition , some glad assurance that all was well ? This wild fancy so grew upon him that when the last day of the year arrived it had become a fixed belief ; and yet it was with a haunting sense of dread -- a dread of he knew not what -- that he looked forward to the stroke of twelve . He got through his performance that night as if he were in a dream , and hurried home ; it was not far from midnight when he arrived . He only glanced at the outside of the letters awaiting him ; there was no one from her ; not in that way was Nina to communicate with him , if her hopes for the future , her forgiveness for what lay in the past , were to reach him at all . He drew a chair to the table and sat down , leaving the letters unheeded . The slow minutes passed ; his thoughts went wandering over the world , seeking for what they could not find .