midnight
The Baroness told her , very calmly and deliberately , that , inasmuch as the Baron paid all the household expenses , and she had not the slightest intention of going back to the old poverty of their previous life , this was a case in which any absurd coyness would be both ludicrous and inconvenient , and that she would really have to make up her mind to comply with the Baron 's wishes , because , if not , he had threatened to part company at once . Instead of being affected by Aurelia 's bitter tears and agonized intreaties , the old woman , breaking into the most brazen and shameless laughter , talked in the most depraved manner of a state of matters which would cause Aurelia to bid , for ever , farewell to every feeling of enjoyment of life in such unrestrained and detestable depravity , defying and insulting all sense of ordinary propriety , so that her shame and terror were undescribable at what she was obliged to hear . In fact she gave herself up for lost , and her only means of salvation appeared to her to be immediate flight . She had managed to possess herself of the key of the hall door , had got together the few little necessaries which she absolutely required , and , just after midnight , was moving softly through the dimly-lighted front hall , at a time when she thought her mother was sure to be last asleep . She was on the point of stepping quietly out into the street , when the door opened with a clang , and heavy footsteps came noisily up the steps . The Baroness came staggering and stumbling into the hall , right up to Aurelia 's feet , nothing upon her but a kind of miserable wrapper all covered with dirt , her breast and her arms naked , her grey hair all hanging down and dishevelled . And close after her came the stranger , who seized her by the hair , and dragged her into the middle of the hall , crying out in a yelling voice -- `` Wait , you old devil , you witch of hell !