midnight
The plot is a wild extravaganza , crammed with high-flown , mock-romantic episodes . Cherry Wilkinson , as the result of a surfeit of romances , perhaps including _ The Misanthropic Parent or The Guarded Secret _ -LRB- 1807 -RRB- , by Miss Smith , deserts her real father -- a worthy farmer -- to look for more aristocratic parents . As he is not picturesque enough for a villain , she repudiates him with scorn : `` Have you the gaunt ferocity of famine in your countenance ? Can you darken the midnight with a scowl ? Have you the quivering lip and the Schedoniac contour ? In a word , are you a picturesque villain full of plot and horror and magnificent wickedness ? Ah !