nearly midnight
`` Please go downstairs and ask that dinner be sent up , Barbara , '' Nona demanded . `` And get soup or milk or something special ; if not I 'll make some beef tea for Mildred on the alcohol lamp . Mildred , suppose you put on my wrapper and lie down until after you have eaten , then we can talk as long as you have strength for . '' And the girls did talk until nearly midnight in spite of Mildred 's fatigue . She was perfectly well , only tired , she insisted , and greatly excited at seeing Nona and Barbara again . She had passed through events in these past few weeks such as few women have ever known . But of course Mildred related what had taken place in a simple , almost matter of fact fashion .