the first of May at midnight
He was due to speak in Boston at Faneuil Hall on the first of May , and that same night to leave for the West , and three days before his coming Helen fled from the city . He had spoken his message to Philadelphia , he had spoken to New York , and for a week the papers had spoken only of him . And for that week , from the sight of his printed name , from sketches of him exhorting cheering mobs , from snap-shots of him on rear platforms leaning forward to grasp eager hands , Helen had shut her eyes . And that during the time he was actually in Boston she might spare herself further and more direct attacks upon her feelings she escaped to Fair Harbor , there to remain until , on the first of May at midnight , he again would pass out of her life , maybe forever . No one saw in her going any significance . Spring had come , and in preparation for the summer season the house at Fair Harbor must be opened and set in order , and the presence there of some one of the Page family was easily explained . She made the three hours ' run to Fair Harbor in her car , driving it herself , and as the familiar landfalls fell into place , she doubted if it would not have been wiser had she stayed away .