midnight
`` One day Cardillac was very grave and preoccupied over his work , instead of being in the merriest of humours , jesting and laughing as he usually did , and so provoking my abhorrence of him . All of a sudden he threw aside the ornament he was working at , so that the pearls and other stones rolled across the floor , and starting to his feet he exclaimed , ` Olivier , things ca n't go on in this way between us ; the footing we are now on is getting unbearable . Chance has played into your hands the knowledge of a secret which has baffled the most inventive cunning of Desgrais and all his myrmidons . You have seen me at my midnight work , to which I am goaded by my evil destiny ; no resistance is ever of any avail . And your evil destiny it was which led you to follow me , which wrapped you in an impenetrable veil and gave you the lightness of foot which , enabled you to walk as noiselessly as the smallest insect , so that I , who in the blackest night see as plainly as a tiger and hear the slightest noise , the humming of midges , far away along the streets , did not perceive you near me . Your evil star has brought you to me , my associate . As you are now circumstanced there can be no thought of treachery on your part , and so you may now know all . '