midnight
There was something soothing to her troubled mind in being upon the spot sacred to him . Though he was not present , she seemed closer far to him on Gorse Point than anywhere else . His foot had marked the turf there ; his eye had mirrored the furzes a hundred times ; she knew just where his shadow had fallen as he stood painting , and the spot upon which he was wont to sit by the cliff-edge when came the time for rest . Beside this holy place she now seated herself and waited with hope higher in the splendor of morning ; for sorrows , fears and ills are always blackest when the sun has set , and every man or woman can better face trouble on opening their eyes in a sunny dawn than after midnight has struck , a sad day left them weakened , and nothing wakes in the world but Care and themselves . The morning wore away , and the old fears returned with greater force to chill her soul . The sun was burnishing the sea , and she watched Mousehole luggers putting out and dancing away through the gold . Under the cliffs the gulls wheeled with sad cries and the long-necked cormorants hastened backward and forward , now flying fast and low over the water , now fishing here and there in couples .