midnight
`` Choose to suit yourself , '' said the lawyer coolly . He himself had admired Cornelia from afar off . The next night , to Stanton 's mixed feelings of relief and disappointment the `` surprise '' seemed to consist in the fact that nothing happened at all . Fully until midnight the sense of relief comforted him utterly . But some time after midnight , his hungry mind , like a house-pet robbed of an accustomed meal , began to wake and fret and stalk around ferociously through all the long , empty , aching , early morning hours , searching for something novel to think about . By supper-time the next evening he was in an irritable mood that made him fairly clutch the special delivery letter out of the postman 's hand . It was rather a thin , tantalizing little letter , too .