midnight
I did not mean that ! '' ... I could not help looking at him and smiling in complicity ; now why should Edgar be so learned ? I suppose you think it very childish to write you these particulars , but the most trifling details of this day are precious to me , and I must confide them to some one . Towards midnight we separated , and I rejoiced at being alone with my happiness . The emotion I felt was so lively that I hastened to carry it far away from everybody , even from him , its author . I wished for solitude that I might ask myself what had caused this agitation -- nothing of importance had occurred this day , no word of engagement for the future had been made , and yet my whole life wore a different aspect ... my usually calm heart was throbbing violently -- my mind always so uneasy was settled ; who had thus changed my fate ? ... A stranger ... and what had he done to merit this sudden preference ?