midnight
` You mean ? ' he questioned her ; but still he had again to read her answer in her eyes . ` Oh , very well , Grisel , ' he said quietly , ` you know best , ' and returned once more to his writing . For an hour or two Lawford slept heavily , so heavily that when a little after midnight he awoke , with his face towards the uncurtained window , though for many minutes he lay brightly confronting all Orion , that from blazing helm to flaming dog at heel filled high the glimmering square , he could not lift or stir his cold and leaden limbs . He rose at last and threw off the burden of his bedclothes , and rested awhile , as if freed from the heaviness of an unrememberable nightmare . But so clear was his mind and so extraordinarily refreshed he seemed in body that sleep for many hours would not return again . And he spent almost all the remainder of the lagging darkness pacing softly to and fro ; one face only before his eyes , the one sure thing , the one thing unattainable in a world of phantoms .