midnight
There only rested one thing more to make the catastrophe complete , and that also came to pass : Cecil was fully and entirely aware of his sentiments with regard to her . What woman but knows when a man loves her ? What woman but knows -LRB- in spite of all the lies she may utter to her own heart -RRB- when a man has ceased to love her ? In dark moments , in the cruel quiet of midnight , has not the terrible certainty of her loss made her youth grow dead within her ? Cecil 's revenge has come , and I hardly think she spares it . Scrupulously , carefully , she adheres to her _ rôle _ of friend , never for an instant permitting him to break through the cold barricade of mere good-fellowship she has raised between them . Should he in an imprudent moment seek to undermine this barrier , by a word , a smile , sweet but chilling , she expresses either astonishment or amusement at his presumption -LRB- the latter being perhaps the more murderous weapon of the two , as ridicule is death to love -RRB- , and so checks him .