midnight
She let him talk the most , because she was too glad to speak , and because they had both the same thoughts , and it did not need two to utter them . Now and then , he made her speak ; he made her answer some question ; but it was like some question that she had asked herself . From time to time they spoke of others besides themselves ; of her mother and the Burtons , of Charmian , of Mrs. Westley , of Wetmore ; but it was in relation to themselves ; without this relation , nothing had any meaning . When they parted after an evening prolonged till midnight in Mrs. Montgomery 's parlor , that which had been quiescent in Cornelia 's soul , stirred again , and she knew that she was wrong to let Ludlow go without telling him of Dickerson . It was the folly of that agreement of theirs about painting Charmian repeating itself in slightly different terms , and with vastly deeper meaning , but to a like end of passive deceit , of tacit untruth ; his wish did not change it . She thought afterwards she could not have let him go without telling him , if she had not believed somehow that the parallel would complete itself , and that he would come back , as he had done before , and help her undo what was false between them ; but perhaps this was not so ; perhaps if she had been sure he would not come back she would not have spoken ; at any rate he did not come back . Cornelia was left to no better counsels than those of Charmian Maybough , and these were disabled from what they might have been at their best , by Cornelia 's failure to be frank with her .