midnight
Too hurried now for reproaches , she drew it forth , and with trembling fingers untied the strings . Casting aside the cover , she produced a huge scoop bonnet of a long-past date , and setting it on her head , with the same fevered haste , tied over it the long figured veil destined always to make an inseparable part of her state array . She snatched her stella shawl from the drawer , threw it over her shoulders , and ran out of the room . Miss Dyer was left quite bewildered by these erratic proceedings , but she had no mind to question them ; so many stories were rife in the Home of the eccentricities embodied in the charitable phrase `` Mis ' Blair 's way '' that she would scarcely have been amazed had her terrible room-mate chosen to drive a coach and four up the chimney , or saddle the broom for a midnight revel . She drew a long breath of relief at the bliss of solitude , closed her eyes , and strove to regain the lost peace , which , as she vaguely remembered , had belonged to her once in a shadowy past . Silence had come , but not to reign . Back flew Mrs. Blair , like a whirlwind .