midnight
But if instead he once said to me -- `` Eleanor , there is a God ! -- and it is He that has brought us together in this life and work , -- He that will comfort you , and open new ways for me '' -- Ah then -- then ! -- * * * * * ` Christmas Day . We went last night to the midnight mass at Santa Maria Maggiore . Edward is always incalculable at these functions ; sometimes bored to death , sometimes all enthusiasm and sympathy . Last night the crowd jarred him , and I wished we had not come . But as we walked home through the moonlit streets , full of people hurrying in and out of the churches , of the pifferari with their cloaks and pipes -- black and white nuns -- brown monks -- lines of scarlet seminarists , and the like , he suddenly broke out with the prayer of the First Christmas Mass -- I must give it in English , for I have forgotten the Latin : ' '' _ O God , who didst cause this most holy Night to be illumined by the rising of the true Light , we beseech Thee that we who know on earth the secret shining of His splendour may win in Heaven His eternal joys _ . ''