nearly midnight
To look forward through two long years of misery and apprehension to the return of -- his son . His son -- a strange yearning towards the vicious creature he had carelessly glanced at that morning , took possession of him . He started up again , and seized his hat . He would go down , even though it were nearly midnight , and get the gaoler to admit him to the prisoner 's cell . He made a few steps towards the door , and then stopped . No , better not . Reality would blast the delicate glamour-bloom with which his imagination had clothed for the moment that sordid form .