midnight
It was as if he felt a mother 's clasp for the first time since his babyhood and could not let it go . `` In here , '' she indicated softly , and the young man went in , his head bent , his lips set . * * * * * Two hours afterward he came out . She was waiting for him , though it was midnight . Louis and Stephen were waiting , too , and they in turn grasped his hand , their faces pitiful for the keen grief they saw in his . Then Mrs. Gray took him down to the porch , where the warm May night folded them softly about . She sat down beside him on a wide settle .