midnight
His business grows and multiplies , and he becomes a strong man among men ; always reserved , always cautious , a man whose self-poise makes people take him for a cynic , though his heart is full of hope and of the joy of life to the very last . Let us lift up one more rag -- one more painted rag in the scenery of his life -- and see him a reformer of national fame ; see him with an unflinching hand pull the wires that control a great national policy of his party , and watch in that scene wherein he names a president -- even against the power and the money and the organization of rich men , brutally rich men like John Barclay . Hendricks ' thin hair is growing gray in this scene , and his skin is no longer fresh and white ; but his eyes have a twinkle in them , and the ardour of his soul glows in a glad countenance . And as he sits alone in his room long after midnight while the bands are roaring and the processions cheering and the great city is ablaze with excitement , Robert Hendricks , turning fifty , winds his watch -- the same watch that he holds in his hand here while we pause to peek under the canvas behind the scenes -- and wonders if Molly will be glad that his side won . He has not seen her for months , nor talked with her for years , and yet as he sits there winding his watch after his great strategic victory in national politics , he hopes fondly that perhaps Molly will know that he played a clean hand and won a fair game . Now let us crawl out from under this rubbish of the coming years , back into Sycamore Ridge . And while the street is deserted , let us turn the film of events forward , letting them flit by unnoticed past the wedding of Molly Culpepper and Adrian Brownwell until we come to the August day when the railroad came to Sycamore Ridge .