midnight
He did not think her pretty ; no one ever thought that . It happened , then , that he spent two or three evenings at the Hardys ' , where Mary went , every night , to rub grandmother and put her to bed ; and while she sat there in the darkened room , soothing the old woman for her dreary vigil , she heard his golden tales of people in strange lands . It seemed very wonderful to Mary . She had not dreamed there were such lands in all the world ; and when she hurried home , it was to hunt out her old geography , and read it until after midnight . She followed rivers to their sources , and dwelt upon mountains with amazing names . She was seeing the earth and its fullness , and her heart beat fast . Next day she went away for a long case , giving only one little sigh in the going , to the certainty that , when she came back , Johnnie Veasey would be off on another voyage to lands beyond the sea .