midnight
`` Oh , father , let me stay with you , '' sobbed Erica , `` I ca n't bear it alone . '' Perhaps he was glad to have her near him for his own sake , perhaps he recognized the truth to which she unconsciously testified that human nature does at times cry out for something other than self , stronger and higher . He raised no more objections , they listened in silence till the sound of the church bells died away in the distance , and then he found a more sheltered seat and wrapped her up closely in his own plaid , and together they began their new year . The first lull in Erica 's pain came in that midnight crossing ; the heaving of the boat , the angry dashing of the waves , the foam-laden wind , all seemed to relieve her . Above all there was comfort in the strong protecting arm round her . Yet she was too crushed and numb to be able to wish for anything but that the end might come for her there , that together they might sink down into the painless silence of death . Raeburn only spoke once throughout the passage ; instinctively he knew what was passing in Erica 's mind .