midnight
It was as if he had been hearing their very tone when she brought out a reference that was comparatively straight . `` The last twice that you 've been here , you know , I never asked you , '' she said with an abrupt transition -- they had been pretending before this to talk simply of the charm of yesterday and of the interest of the country they had seen . The effort was confessedly vain ; not for such talk had she invited him ; and her impatient reminder was of their having done for it all the needful on his coming to her after Sarah 's flight . What she had n't asked him then was to state to her where and how he stood for her ; she had been resting on Chad 's report of their midnight hour together in the Boulevard Malesherbes . The thing therefore she at present desired was ushered in by this recall of the two occasions on which , disinterested and merciful , she had n't worried him . To-night truly she _ would _ worry him , and this was her appeal to him to let her risk it . He was n't to mind if she bored him a little : she had behaved , after all -- had n't she ?