midnight
Yielding himself to what thoughts might arise , the strange sight he had seen here on that moonlit night , of two silent wandering figures -- or could it be that they were one and the same , suddenly changed in hue ? -- returned upon him . This vision had been so speedily followed by the second and more alarming apparition of Lady Euphrasia , that he had hardly had time to speculate on what the former could have been . He was meditating upon all these strange events , and remarking to himself that , since his midnight encounter with Lady Euphrasia , the house had been as quiet as a church-yard at noon , when all suddenly , he saw before him , at some little distance , a dark figure approaching him . His heart seemed to bound into his throat and choke him , as he said to himself : `` It is the nun again ! '' But the next moment he saw that it was Euphra . I do not know which he would have preferred not meeting alone , and in the deepening twilight : Euphra , too , had become like a ghost to him .