midnight
He knew that she had suspected him in the past , and he saw that she had outlived her suspicion . `` There is a statute of limitations to these things as well as for debt , '' he said to himself . `` A man can live down anything , if he knows what he is about . '' After that midnight interview between the two girls in Miss Halliday 's bedroom , life went very smoothly at the gothic villa for two or three days , during which the impulsive Charlotte , being forbidden to talk openly of the change in her friend 's position , was fain to give vent to her feelings by furtive embraces and hand-squeezings , sly nods and meaning becks , and mischievous twinkling of her arch grey eyes . She talked of Valentine more than ever now , feeling herself at liberty to sing what pæans she pleased in praise of her hero , now that her friend had also a fitting subject for pæans . `` And now it 's your turn to talk of M. Lenoble , dear , '' she would say naïvely , when she had entertained Diana with the minute details of her last conversation with her lover , or a lively sketch of the delights of that ideal cottage which she loved to furnish and unfurnish in accordance with the new fancy of the hour . Diana was pleased to listen to her girlish talk : to hang and rehang the ideal draperies , to fill and refill the ideal bookcase , to plan and replan the arrangements of that ideal existence which was to be all joy and love and harmony ; but when her turn came , and she was asked to be rapturous about her own lover , she could say nothing : that which she felt was too deep for words .