midnight
`` Did you ever notice this mark upon it , '' I asked -- `` a heart with a dagger through it ? '' and bending down my face to hers , I added a certain spooney remark , which I do not care to repeat . Miss Clifton tossed her little head , and pouted her lips ; but she took the box out of my hands , and carried it to the lamp nearest the further end of the van , after which she put it down upon the counter close beside the screen , and I thought no more about it . The midnight ride was entertaining in the extreme , for the girl was full of young life and sauciness and merry humour . I can safely aver that I have never been to an evening 's so-called entertainment which , to me , was half so enjoyable . It added also to the zest and keen edge of the enjoyment to see her hasten to hide herself whenever I told her we were going to stop to take up the mails . `` We had passed Watford , the last station at which we stopped , before I became alive to the recollection that our work was terribly behindhand .