midnight
`` I am ready enough for home , '' said I. And she smiled very friendly at me for that word . `` I am glad you call it that , '' said she . * * * * * There was but a little dried fish and rice for supper that night , as it was a fast day ; but the supper of Christmas Eve is always a kind of sacramental for me , when midnight mass is to follow . There was no midnight mass for us that Christmas , nor any mass at all ; though I suppose it was celebrated as usual in the Ambassadors ' chapels , and the Queen 's : yet the supper had yet that air of mystery and expectancy about it . `` We are all to dance to-morrow night , '' said Dolly . `` So that is why the floor is cleared in the Great Chamber , '' I said . She nodded at me .