Midnight
`` A true distinction , nevertheless , '' maintained Beulah . `` Be good enough to explain it then . '' `` For instance , I read Carlyle for hours , without the slightest sensation of weariness . Midnight forces me to lay the book reluctantly aside , and then the myriad conjectures and inquiries which I am conscious of , as arising from those same pages , weary me beyond all degrees of endurance . '' `` And these conjectures cloud your mind ? '' said Cornelia , with a half - smile breaking over her face . `` I did not say so ; I merely gave it as an illustration of what you professed not to understand . ''