He reached the plateau before the Casa del Mare. The Marchesino was not there. He looked up at the house. As he did so the front door opened and Hermione came out, wrapped in a white lace shawl. "Emile?" she said, stopping with her hand on the door. "Why--how extraordinary!"
She came to him. "Have you come to pay us a nocturnal visit, or--there's nothing the matter?"
"No," he said. For perhaps the first time in his life he felt embarrassed with Hermione.英文原著 · 《A Spirit in Prison》
They bent, they crouched. They seemed to die down like a wave that is, then is not. Then rising they towered, lifting brawny arms towards the stars. Silence seemed to flow from them, to exude from their labors. And in the swiftness of their movements there was something that was sad. Or was it, perhaps, only pathetic, wistful with the wistfulness of the sea and of all nocturnal things? Artois did not ask, but his attention, the attention of mind and soul, was held by these distant voiceless beings as by a magic. And Vere was still as he was, tense as he was.英文原著 · 《A Spirit in Prison》
"Whist! here, you darling boy!" called out some nocturnal prowlers to him; but he passed on, and entering the barracks, flung himself down in his hammock, weeping, all alone, and hardly sleeping until dawn.英文原著 · 《AN ICELAND FISHERMAN》
August 18th. The sky is propitious for my nocturnal excursions. Not a drop of rain has fallen for six weeks. The north wind, which sometimes blows violently in the daytime, abates regularly in the evening. As to the vertigo, no return of it. the power of habit!英文原著 · 《Andre Cornelis》
Sooty, dusky birds seen on the wing, never resting except in chimneys of houses, or hollow trees, where they nest. Tips of tail feathers with sharp spines, used as props. They show their kinship with the goatsuckers in their nocturnal as well as diurnal habits, their small bills and large mouths for catching insects on the wing, and their weak feet. Gregarious, especially at the nesting season. Chimney Swift.英文原著 · 《Bird Neighbors》
The chimney swift is, properly speaking, not a swallow at all, though chimney swallow is its more popular name. Rowing towards the roof of your house, as if it used first one wing, then the other, its flight, while swift and powerful, is stiff and mechanical, unlike the swallow's, and its entire aspect suggests a bat. The nighthawk and whippoorwill are its relatives, and it resembles them not a little, especially in its nocturnal habits.英文原著 · 《Bird Neighbors》
In assessing nocturnal options, whether to keep drinking, head home, or squeeze in a tight little karaoke set, it is good to know the likelihood of success with your special lady.美剧 · 《Billions》