midnight
far from seeing his own face in the glass , Vranic 's likeness was there , staring upon him with his usual leer ! Uros was startled at this sight ; then , for a while he stood as if transfixed , gloating on the image within the glass , unable to turn away his eyes from it . Then , appalled as he was , he almost dropped the looking-glass he was holding . All at once remembering that it was midnight -- the moment when the old year passes into oblivion and the new one rises from chaos -- his hand fell , and he stood for a while , pale , shuddering , and staring upon vacancy . But -- recalled to himself -- he endeavoured to retrace the long string of thoughts that had flitted through his brain , since he had left the captain and Milenko up to the moment that he had looked upon the glass , and Vranic was not amongst them . His brain had been rather muddled by sleepiness and brandy , and he had hardly been thinking about anything . Having lifted up the glass to the height of his face , he for a moment held his head averted , for he had really not the courage to look upon it .