midnight
Tell him it 's a sudden call on me for railroad shares , or ' -- and here he winked knowingly -- ` say , it 's going to Rome the money is , and for the Pope ! ' ` That 's an excellent thought , papa , ' said she , laughing ; ` I 'll certainly tell him the money is going to Rome , and you 'll write soon -- you see with what anxiety she expects your answer . ' ` I 'll write to-night when the house is quiet , and there 's no racket nor disturbance about me . ' Now though Kearney said this with a perfect conviction of its truth and reasonableness , it would have been very difficult for any one to say in what that racket he spoke of consisted , or wherein the quietude of even midnight was greater than that which prevailed there at noonday . Never , perhaps , were lives more completely still or monotonous than theirs . People who derive no interests from the outer world , who know nothing of what goes on in life , gradually subside into a condition in which reflection takes the place of conversation , and lose all zest and all necessity for that small talk which serves , like the changes of a game , to while away time , and by the aid of which , if we do no more , we often delude the cares and worries of existence . A kind good-morning when they met , and a few words during the day -- some mention of this or that event of the farm or the labourers , and rare enough too -- some little incident that happened amongst the tenants , made all the materials of their intercourse , and filled up lives which either would very freely have owned were far from unhappy .