midnight
`` Let him go on ! '' she said with a flash that petrified the secretary . `` When I came up to the bridge , she was sitting there , with some cards -- all alone . She had some superstition about trying fortunes on a new bridge at midnight , and that explains the lateness of the hour . So I persuaded her to come home , and that is all . '' Mrs. Gregory breathed with relief . `` What an odd little darling ! ''