Twelve o'clock at night
`` I would rather have a crust with you than joints every day with another mistress . And it do n't matter about wages , ma'am , '' she went on ; `` I do n't want no wages till you can afford to give them . '' For once Mrs. Mortomley rose to the occasion , and held her impulses well in hand , while she answered , `` You had better go to bed Esther , and we will talk all this over again in a day or two . Twelve o'clock at night is not the time for you to make or for me to accept such an offer ; because it may mar a good part of your future , my dear , '' she added softly . Already Dolly was beginning to understand the most beautiful part of life is that which returns a second time no more . Till the green leaves of her youth were lying brown and withered under her feet , she never realised that she had left behind for ever the flowery dells bright with primroses and sweet with violets ; that spring for her was over -- and not spring merely , but summer also . Summer roses would greet new-comers along time 's highway , but charm her with perfume and colour , with the seductive and subtle charm of old , never again -- ah !