midnight
You 're young , Richard , lad , and you 'll know more some day ; but I 'll tell you beforehand , if you iver hev a favor to ask , ask it of any body but a relation -- you may go to fifty , and not find one at hes owt o ' sort about 'em . '' They talked for half an hour longer in a desultory fashion , as those talk who are full of thoughts they do not share ; and when they parted Richard asked Elizabeth for a rose she had gathered as they walked home together . He asked it distinctly , the beaming glance of his dark eyes giving to the request a meaning she could not , and did not , mistake . Yet she laid it in his hand , and as their eyes met , he knew that as `` there is a budding morrow in the midnight , '' so also there was a budding love in the rose-gift . `` I am with thee , and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee . '' Acts xviii , 10 . `` There I will meet with thee , and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat . ''