nearly twelve
o'clock
said Kitty . ` I thought it began quite a week ago , and that we had had nights and nights of wassail bowls and old memories and Christmas-card cheerfulness . ' She gathered up her hair-pins and brushes and gave a yawn . ` If it is nearly twelve o'clock I suppose I ought to go , ' she said . ` I am not a bit sleepy , ' quoth Jane . ` Apart from the fact of my winter being dull , ' said Kitty , ` with my beloved parent in Rome , my temper is never proof against giving way when any one reads aloud to me . The story of the French vicomte is really answerable for my present horrible state of mind . '