midnight
she says again , trembling from head to foot . Another moment , and the door has closed behind her . `` The old , old pain of earth . '' It is now close upon midnight -- that midnight of the warmer months when day sets its light finger on the fringes of it . There is a sighing through the woods , a murmur from the everlasting sea , and though Diana still rides high in heaven with her handmaiden Venus by her side , yet in a little while her glory will be departed , and her one rival , the sun , will push her from her throne . The gleaming lamps among the trees-are scarcely so bright as they were an hour ago , the faint sighing of the wind that heralds the morning is shaking them to and fro . A silly bird has waked , and is chirping in a foolish fashion among the rhododendrons , where , in a secluded path , Joyce and Dicky Browne are wandering somewhat aimlessly .