midnight
`` Straight ? '' `` Over a gate ; ha , ha ! '' His gaiety would have been perplexing , but for the allusion to Lady Charlotte . The sisters , in their unfailing midnight consultation , persuaded one another that Wilfrid had become engaged to that lady . They wrote forthwith Fine Shades to him on the subject . His answer was Boeotian , and all about Besworth . `` Press it now , '' he said , `` if you really want it .