seven o'clock
Youth can nearly always rely upon sleep to build up new strength , new hope , new courage . If you have got to a stage in your life when sleep fails you , if night means merely a long tortured pause from the noises of the world , in which the beating of your heart seems unbearably loud , then indeed you have reached to the uttermost edge of despair . Joan slept , heavily and dreamlessly , save that there was some vague hint of happiness in her mind , till she was wakened in the morning by a most violent bell ringing . The dressing-bell at Shamrock House , which went at seven o'clock , was carried by a maid up and down every passage , so that there was not the slightest chance of anyone oversleeping themselves . Joan dressed quickly ; the faint aroma of happiness which her sleep had brought her , and which amounted to cheerfulness , stayed with her . She remembered how Miss Abercrombie had once said to her : `` Oh , you are a Browningite , '' and smiled at the phrase , repeating to herself another verse of the same poem : `` And I shall thereupon Take rest ere I be gone , Once more on my adventure brave and new . '' She felt almost confident of success this morning ; her mind was busy with plans of the work she would find .