midnight
* * * * * This morning I rose at daybreak , and going into the garden , surveyed the spot which I had imagined traversed by Madame Letellier the night before . I found it slightly trampled , but what interested me a great deal more than this was the fact that , on a certain portion of the surface of the stone I have so often mentioned , there were to be seen small particles of a white substance , which I soon discovered to be wax . Thus the mystery of her midnight visit is solved . She has been taking an impression of what , in her one short glimpse of yesterday evening , she had thought to be an inscription . What a wonderful woman she is ! What skill she shows ; what secrecy and what purpose .