midnight
Carefully she dried the composition , and then put the note away . Some day she would confound him by returning it . A little later her fingers were moving softly over the piano keys ; melodies in minor , sad and haunting and elusive , melodies that had never been put on paper and would always be her own : in them she might leap from comedy to tragedy , from laughter to tears , and only she would know . The midnight adventure was forgotten , and the hero of it , too . With her eyes closed and her lithe body swaying gently , she let the old weary pain in her heart take hold again . Flora Desimone had been born in a Calabrian peasant 's hut , and she had rolled in the dust outside , yelling vigorously at all times . Specialists declare that the reason for all great singers coming from lowly origin is found in this early development of the muscles of the throat .