midnight
`` I should wish to do that '' ; and both he and his wife understood from that ready answer more completely than they ever had before how near Stella had come to the big blank wall at the end of life . For seven years she had held her head high , never so much as whispering a reproach against her husband , keeping with a perpetual guard the secret of her misery . Pride had been her mainspring ; now even that was broken . Repton went out of the house and returned at midnight . `` It 's all settled , '' he said . `` You will have a cabin on deck in both steamers . I gave your name in confidence to the manager here and he will take care that everything possible is done for you .