midnight
On this night the furnaces of Red Cow Ironworks , in the hollow to the east , were in full blast ; their fluctuating yellow light illuminated queerly the grass of the fields above Deane 's house , and the regular roar of their breathing reached that solitary spot like the distant rumour of some leviathan beast angrily fuming . Further away to the south-west the Cauldon Bar Ironworks reproduced the same phenomena , and round the whole horizon , near and far , except to the north-east , the lesser fires of labour leapt and flickered and glinted in their mists of smoke , burning ceaselessly , as they burned every night and every day at all seasons of all years . The town of Bursley slept in the deep valley to the west , and vast Hanbridge in the shallower depression to the south , like two sleepers accustomed to rest quietly amid great disturbances ; the beacons of their Town Halls and churches kept watch , and the whole scene was dominated by the placidity of the moon , which had now risen clear of the Red Cow furnace clouds , and was passing upwards through tracts of stars . Into this scene , climbing up from the direction of Manifold , came Lionel Woolley , nearly at midnight , having walked some eighteen miles in a vain effort to re-establish his self-satisfaction by a process of reasoning and ingenious excuses . Lionel felt that in the brief episode of the afternoon he had scarcely behaved with dignity . In other words , he was fully and painfully aware that he must have looked a fool , a coward , an ass , a contemptible and pitiful person , in the eyes of at least one girl , if not of two . He did not like this -- no man would have liked it ; and to Lionel the memory of an undignified act was acute torture .