nearly midnight
If you wish me to think you are sincere , -- if you wish us still to be friends -- stay till I have left the pier . -- Good night . '' He muttered a return , and stood watching her as she walked quietly away . When it was nearly midnight , Ida lay on her bed , dressed , as she had lain since her return home . For more than an hour she had cried and sobbed in blank misery , cried as never since the bitter days long ago , just after her mother 's death . Then , the fit over , something like a reaction of calm followed , and as she lay perfectly still in the darkness , her regular breathing would have led one to believe her asleep . But she was only thinking , and indeed very far from sleep .