midnight
It did not lessen those vague and terrible fears which had haunted me about Francezka . The next few days were busy enough , and I scarce rested by night or day . A week passed , and , hearing nothing of Gaston Cheverny , I tried to persuade myself that my eyes had been deceived . Truly , although I have been a thousand times in places of much greater danger , I do not think I have ever known greater excitement , or conditions when a man could be more readily deceived than that midnight in the market-place of Prague . I said this to myself many times . It is strange how a man will argue with himself to believe a thing which he can not believe , and will silence , without convincing , himself . I was revolving these things in my mind one night , about a week afterward , on my way alone through the narrow , dark unlighted streets , lying black in the shadows of the overhanging houses .