midnight
`` Dowie , '' timidly . `` I want to begin to make some little clothes like these . Do you think I can ? '' `` Well , my dear , '' answered Dowie composedly -- no less so because it was past midnight and the stillness of moor and deserted castle rooms was like a presence in itself . `` I taught you to sew very neatly before you were twelve . You liked to do it and you learned to make beautiful small stitches . And Mademoiselle taught you to do fine embroidery .