midnight
Who would comfort him when she was gone or speak to him words of love ? Softly the chamber door unclosed , and Dora Deane looked in ; but seeing them thus together she stole away into the garden , where the early spring grass was just starting into life , and there , weeping bitterly , she too prayed that Ella might not die . But neither tears nor prayers were of avail to save her . Still for weeks she lingered , and the soft June air , stealing in through the open window , had more than once lifted the golden curls from off her fading brow , and more than one bouquet of sweet wild blossoms had been laid upon her pillow , ere the midnight hour , when , with anguish at their hearts , Howard Hastings and Dora Deane watched together by her side , and knew that she was dying . There had been long , dreary nights of wakefulness , and the worn-out sufferer had asked at last that she might die -- might sleep the dreamless sleep from which she would never waken . And Howard Hastings , as night after night went by , and the laughing blue eyes which had won his early love grew dim with constant waking , had felt that it would be better when his loved one was at rest . But death , however long expected , is sudden at the last , and so it was to him , when he saw the shadow creeping over her face , which cometh once to all .