midnight
Langham for the first time gave Elsmere an outline of his plans for the future , and Robert , filled with dismay at this final breach with Oxford and human society , and the only form of practical life possible to such a man , threw himself into protests more and more vigorous and affectionate . Langham listened to them at first with sombre silence , then with an impatience which gradually reduced Robert to a sore puffing at his pipe . There was a long space during which they sat together , the ashes of the little fire Robert had made dropping on the hearth , and not a word on either side . At last Elsmere could not bear it , and when midnight struck he sprang up with an impatient shake of his long body , and Langham took the hint , gave him a cold good-night , and went . As the door shut upon him , Robert dropped back into his chair , and sat on , his face in his hands , staring dolefully at the fire . It seemed to him the world was going crookedly . A day on which a man of singularly open and responsive temper makes a new enemy , and comes nearer than ever before to losing an old friend , shows very blackly to him in the calendar , and by way of aggravation , a Robert Elsmere says to himself at once , that somehow or other there must be fault of his own in the matter .