ten o'clock
Recently , that earlier picture of Felicity beside the lamp had given place in his imagination to one associated with a deeper experience . He had just pictured her in her scarlet cloak and hood ; then he had looked up to see the same figure vanishing before his eyes . A moment 's reflection convinced him of the psychic nature of the phenomenon . In all the range of human probabilities , what errand could lead her at ten o'clock on such a night to that lonely hilltop , and on down the road into the country beyond ? It was manifest that his own mind had shaped the vision from the pale vapours , and he realised how weary and overwrought he had become . His sensation was now almost one of fear , as if he had seen the ghost of a loved one rising out of the mists of a remote and passionate past . A strange impulse seized him to follow the phantom further , but he was shivering with the penetrating dampness to which he had been long exposed , and instead he continued his way toward his room .