midnight
Again and again there rose before him the vision of two men in an open buggy , with a singing , apparently maudlin person between them whom Ohadi believed to be an effeminate-voiced Swede ; in reality , only a woman . And why had they adopted the expedient ? Why had not Larsen been with them in reality ? Fairchild avoided the obvious conclusion and turned to other thoughts , to Rodaine with his squint eyes , to Crazy Laura , gathering herbs at midnight in the shadowy , stone-sentineled stretches of graveyards , while the son , perhaps , danced at some function of Ohadi 's society and made love in the rest periods . It was all grotesque ; it was fantastic , almost laughable , -- had it not concerned him ! For Rodaine had been his father 's enemy , and Mother Howard had told him enough to assure him that Rodaine did not forget . The crazed woman of the graveyards was Squint 's lunatic wife , ready to kill , if necessary , for a husband who beat her .