two hours after
midnight
Now Dion had offered her his love , and nothing could rob her of it . Gorgias and the sons of her uncle Arius had disturbed her a short time . After they had gone with a good report , Berenike had entreated her daughter to lie down and let her take her place . But Barine would not leave her lover 's couch , and had just loosed her hair to brush it again and fasten the thick , fair braids around her head , when , two hours after midnight , some one knocked loudly on the window shutters . Berenike was in the act of removing the poultice , so Barine herself went into the atrium to wake the doorkeeper . But the old man was not asleep , and had anticipated her . She recognized , with a low cry of terror , the first person who entered the lighted vestibule -- Alexas .