midnight
Friends do it , and enemies ; the unknown contractors of this engagement , or armistice , inspire an interest . It certainly is both exciting and comforting to hear that man and woman are ready to join in a mutual affirmative , say Yes together again . It sounds like the end of the war . The proclamation of the proximate marriage of a young Minister of State and the greatest heiress of her day ; notoriously ` The young Minister of State ' of a famous book written by the beautiful , now writhing , woman madly enamoured of him -- and the heiress whose dowry could purchase a Duchy ; this was a note to make the gossips of England leap from their beds at the midnight hour and wag tongues in the market-place . It did away with the political hubbub over the Tonans article , and let it noise abroad like nonsense . The Hon. Percy Dacier espouses Miss Asper ; and she rescues him from the snares of a siren , he her from the toils of the Papists . She would have gone over to them , she was going when , luckily for the Protestant Faith , Percy Dacier intervened with his proposal .