midnight
The gay Tirabaloschi immediately discovered that it was time to depart -- it had not struck any one before , but it certainly / was / late . The Italians began to bustle about , to collect their music , to make fine speeches and fine professions -- to bow and to smile -- to scramble into their boat , and to push towards the inn at Como , where they had engaged their quarters for the night . As the boat glided away , and while two of them were employed at the oar , the remaining four took up their instruments and sang a parting glee . It was quite midnight -- the hush of all things around had grown more intense and profound -- there was a wonderful might of silence in the shining air and amidst the shadows thrown by the near banks and the distant hills over the water . So that as the music chiming in with the oars grew fainter and fainter , it is impossible to describe the thrilling and magical effect it produced . The party ashore did not speak ; there was a moisture , a grateful one , in the bright eyes of Teresa , as she leant upon the manly form of De Montaigne , for whom her attachment was , perhaps , yet more deep and pure for the difference of their ages . A girl who once loves a man , not indeed old , but much older than herself , loves him with such a / looking up / and venerating love !