midnight
`` Auntie left the money for me to study in Paris . If I tell my step-father that Madame Gautier is dead , he 'll just fetch me home , and what 'll become of Paula then ? '' Thus and thus , ringing the changes on resolve and explanation , her thoughts ran . A clock chimed midnight . `` Is it possible , '' she asked herself , `` that it 's not twelve hours since I was at the Hotel Bête -- talking to Him ? Well , I shall never see him again , I suppose . How odd that I do n't feel as if I cared whether I did or not .