midnight
`` When they have been mine , they were spontaneous gifts , offered nobly , and if not accepted , at least declined with gratitude and sensibility . If I have been so unfortunate as to win what your lovely sister might more justly claim , it has been by the exercise of no base allurement or meritricious attractions . I appeal to your own experience , and if it does not acquit me , I am for ever silent . '' Coldly and proudly my eye met his , as we stood face to face in the light of the midnight moon . I , who had looked up to him with the reverence due to a superior being , felt that I was above him now . He was the slave of an unjust passion , the dupe of a distempered fancy , and as such unworthy of my respect and love . As I admitted this truth , I shuddered with that vague horror we feel in dreams , when we recoil from the brink of something , we know not what .