midnight
In the next turn Rose 's hatpin passed within a quarter-inch of Grace 's jugular . But the blow nearly threw her off her feet , and she was at her enemy 's mercy . With an evil oath the fiend thrust full at her face just as the policeman , who had come through the crowd unobserved , so intent was it upon the fight , knocked the steel from her hand . At midnight two dishevelled hags with faces flattened against the bars of adjoining cells in the police station were hurling sidelong curses at each other and at the maddened doorman . Nigger Martha 's wake had received its appropriate and foreordained ending . The December sun shone clear and cold upon the city . It shone upon rich and poor alike .