midnight
`` Dear , I _ do n't _ care for jokes . '' And then , as she gazed , not without envy , at her friend 's profile , so strangely sweet and gay , she exclaimed suddenly in a shocked tone : `` I believe you really did do it ! '' `` Whisper it not in Gath , '' said Cally , with shining calm ... . It was a belief , so mamma had cried in the midnight , which nobody outside of institutions for the feeble-minded would ever hold . But Cally was struck only with Mattie 's enormous seriousness . Self-reproach filled her for the interval that seemed to lie between them ... `` Mats , you know I 've never kept secrets from you . I 'll tell you everything you want to hear about it , from beginning to end .