midnight
What mischief they can do safely they will do , but nothing else for they are arrant cowards when all 's said . '' The talk of the gentlemen branched off upon other topics , but Desire did not follow it further , finding in what had just been said quite enough to engross her thoughts . Of course there could be no real danger that Hamlin would venture a visit to Stockbridge , since both her father and the doctor scouted the idea ; but there was in the mere suggestion enough to be very agitating . To avoid the possibility of a meeting with Hamlin , as well as to acquit her conscience of a goading conviction of unfairness to him , she had already once risked compromising herself by sending that midnight warning to Lee , nor did she grudge the three weeks ' sickness it cost her , seeing it had succeeded . Nor was the idea of meeting him any less terrifying now . The result of her experiences in the last few months had been that all her old self-reliance was gone . When she recalled what she had done and felt , and imagined what she might have gone on to do , she owned in all humility that she could no longer take care of herself or answer for herself .