middays
Nothing could have been more to the mind of Mrs. Ellison than to deck Kitty for this perpetual masquerade ; and , since the things were very pretty , and Kitty was a girl in every motion of her being , I do not see how anything could have delighted her more than to wear them . Their talk effervesced with the delicious consciousness that he could not dream of what was going on , and babbled over with mysterious jests and laughter , which sometimes he feared to be at his expense , and so joined in , and made them laugh the more at his misconception . He went and came among them at will ; he had but to tap at Mrs. Ellison 's door , and some voice of unaffected cordiality welcomed him in ; he had but to ask , and Kitty was frankly ready for any of those strolls about Quebec in which most of their waking hours were dreamed away . The gray Lady of the North cast her spell about them , -- the freshness of her mornings , the still heat of her middays , the slant , pensive radiance of her afternoons , and the pale splendor of her auroral nights . Never was city so faithfully explored ; never did city so abound in objects of interest ; for Kitty 's love of the place was boundless , and his love for her was inevitable friendship with this adoptive patriotism . `` I did n't suppose you Western people cared for these things , '' he once said ; `` I thought your minds were set on things new and square . '' `` But how could you think so ? ''