midnight
`` My father would have joined us if he had been there . He would certainly have joined us if he had seen me alone with you . Nothing is so easy as civil marriage under the Empire . Of course the religious sacrament follows , when people want it , and if it is celebrated in the church of the Capuchins -- or any other church -- five minutes before midnight , it will make all Paris talk ! Every word I said was true ! '' `` But Doctor Chantry believed something entirely different . '' `` You ca n't do anything for the English , '' said Annabel .