midnight
`` Is n't the usual way the best ? '' `` Oh -- usually -- yes ! But there 's nothing usual about this meeting of ours . Miss Barb , my finding you and your friendship is as if I 'd been lost at midnight in a trackless forest and had all at once found a road . I only wish '' -- he gnawed his lip -- `` I only wish these three last days had come to me years ago . You might have saved me some big mistakes . '' `` No , '' Barbara softly replied , `` I 'm afraid not . ''