midnight
It had appeared and been duly solved in the space of half an hour . She had been his good angel for more than thirty years . It might be very pleasant to live there , after he became accustomed to the change , and with Allison so near -- why , he could n't be half as lonely as he was now . So his thoughts drifted into a happier channel and he was actually humming an old song to himself when he heard Allison 's step , almost at midnight , on the road just beyond the gate . He went in quietly , closed the door , and was in his own room when Allison 's latch-key rattled in the lock . The Colonel took pains not to be heard moving about , but it was unnecessary , for Allison 's heart was beating in time with its own music , and surging with the nameless rapture that comes but once . Down in the moon-lit , dream-haunted garden , Allison waited for Isabel , as the First Man might have waited for the First Woman , in another garden , countless ages ago .