midnight
When they reached the gloomy granite columns of the old River House , Blair left his wife , saying briefly something about `` walking for a while . '' He wanted to be alone . This was not because he felt any lack of sympathy in Elizabeth ; on the contrary , he was nearer to her than at any time since their marriage ; but it was a moment that demanded solitude . So he wandered about Mercer 's streets by himself until after midnight -- down to the old covered bridge , past Mrs. Todd 's ice-cream saloon , out into the country , where the wind was rising , and the tree-tops had begun to sway against the sky . There is a bond , it appears , between mother and child which endures as long as they do . It is independent of love ; reason can not weaken it ; hate can not destroy it . When a man 's mother dies , something in the man dies , too .