midnight
was her cry ; and when I lifted the heavy blind from the casement close at hand -- with her own royal gesture , she showed me a moon supreme , in an element deep and splendid . To my gasping senses she made the glimmering gloom , the narrow limits , the oppressive heat of the dormitory , intolerable . She lured me to leave this den and follow her forth into dew , coolness , and glory . She brought upon me a strange vision of Villette at midnight . Especially she showed the park , the summer-park , with its long alleys all silent , lone and safe ; among these lay a huge stone basin -- that basin I knew , and beside which I had often stood -- deep-set in the tree-shadows , brimming with cool water , clear , with a green , leafy , rushy bed . What of all this ? The park-gates were shut up , locked , sentinelled : the place could not be entered .