midnight
I could not pretend to hide from myself -- I saw it only too clearly , and felt it too unmistakably -- that my peculiar antipathy to the Baron sprang out of the fact that I loved , even to madness , a being who appeared to me to be the loveliest and most fascinating of her sex who had ever trod the earth . This lady was none other than the Baroness herself . Her appearance exercised a powerful and irresistible charm upon me at the very moment of her arrival , when I saw her traversing the apartments in her Russian sable cloak , which fitted close to the exquisite symmetry of her shape , and with a rich veil wrapped about her head . Moreover , the circumstance that the two old aunts , with still more extraordinary gowns and be-ribboned head-dresses than I had yet seen them wear , were sweeping along one on each side of her and cackling their welcomes in French , whilst the Baroness was looking about her in a way so gentle as to baffle all description , nodding graciously first to one and then to another , and then adding in her flute-like voice a few German words in the pure sonorous dialect of Courland -- all this formed a truly remarkable and unusual picture , and my imagination involuntarily connected it with the ghostly midnight visitant , -- the Baroness being the angel of light who was to break the ban of the spectral powers of evil . This wondrously lovely lady stood forth in startling reality before my mind 's eye . At that time she could hardly be nineteen years of age , and her face , as delicately beautiful as her form , bore the impression of the most angelic good-nature ; but what I especially noticed was the indescribable fascination of her dark eyes , for a soft melancholy gleam of aspiration shone in them like dewy moonshine , whilst a perfect elysium of rapture and delight was revealed in her sweet and beautiful smile . She often seemed completely lost in her own thoughts , and at such moments her lovely face was swept by dark and fleeting shadows .