midnight
If at that moment he had taken her up , and clasped her to his heart before the very eyes of Eupliorion and his mother she really would have been incapable of resisting him . It was with a heavy heart that Arsinoe had gone into dame Doris , but in the gate-keeper 's house there reigned an atmosphere in which care and anxiety could not breathe , and the light-hearted girl 's vision of her sister as tormented with pain and threatened with danger was changed in a wonderfully short time to that of a sufferer comfortably in bed , with only a severely-injured foot . In the place of consuming anxiety she felt only hearty sympathy , and this sounded in her voice as she begged the singer Euphorion to open the gate for her , because she wanted to go out with her slave-woman to ascertain how Selene was . Doris soothed her , repeating her assurance that the patient would be nursed with the utmost care in dame Hannah 's hands ; still , she thought her wish to see her sister very justifiable , and eagerly seconded Pollux when he entreated Arsinoe to accept his escort ; for the festival would be beginning soon after midnight , the streets would be full of rough and impudent people , and a bunch of feathers would be about as much use against the drunken slaves as her black scarecrow , who had been falling into decrepitude even before she had done the stupidest deed of her life and roused the steward 's anger against herself . So they went along the dark streets which grew full of people the farther they went , side by side in silence . Presently Pollux said : `` Put your arm through mine ; you ought to feel that I am protecting you , and I -- I should like to feel at every step that I have found you once more , and am allowed to be near you -- so sweet a creature . '' The words did not sound impertinent , on the contrary , they sounded very much in earnest , and the sculptor 's deep voice trembled with emotion as he spoke them with deep tenderness .