midnight
Nella had the front bedroom on the first floor ; Miss Spencer was immured in the attic ; the last-named lady had been singularly quiet and incurious , taking her food from Nella and asking no questions , the old woman went at nights to her own abode in the purlieus of the harbour . Hour after hour Aribert sat silent by his nephew 's bed-side , attending mechanically to his wants , and every now and then gazing hard into the vacant , anguished face , as if trying to extort from that mask the secrets which it held . Aribert was tortured by the idea that if he could have only half an hour 's , only a quarter of an hour 's , rational speech with Prince Eugen , all might be cleared up and put right , and by the fact that that rational talk was absolutely impossible on Eugen 's part until the fever had run its course . As the minutes crept on to midnight the watcher , made nervous by the intense , electrical atmosphere which seems always to surround a person who is dangerously ill , grew more and more a prey to vague and terrible apprehensions . His mind dwelt hysterically on the most fatal possibilities . He wondered what would occur if by any ill-chance Eugen should die in that bed -- how he would explain the affair to Posen and to the Emperor , how he would justify himself . He saw himself being tried for murder , sentenced -LRB- him -- a Prince of the blood ! -RRB-