midnight
Then Monsieur Pickard Leberfink assured her privately , with a most amorous smirk , that he himself knew a little about baking cakes and sweets , and that he was the happy maker of all these delicious dainties . Rettel almost fell upon her knees before him in reverence and astonishment ; and yet the greatest surprise , was still in store for her . In the deepening dusk Monsieur Pickard Leberfink very cleverly contrived to entice little Rettel into a small arbour . No sooner was he alone with her than he recklessly plumped himself down upon both knees in the wet grass , notwithstanding that he was wearing his brilliant green satin hose ; and , amidst many strange and unintelligible sounds of distress -- not very dissimilar to the midnight elegies of the tom-cat Hinz -LSB- 18 -RSB- -- he presented her with an immense nosegay of flowers , in the middle of which was the finest full-blown rose that could be found anywhere . Rettel did what everybody does who has a nosegay given to him ; she raised it to her nose ; but in the selfsame moment she felt a sharp prick . In her alarm she was about to throw the nosegay away . But see what charming wonder had revealed itself in the meantime !