midnight
`` She ought to have let me die first , '' said Giovanni , and then , looking at me again with his large , glittering , fierce eyes , he said : '' _ You _ think she ought to have let me die , do n't you ? '' `` No , no , no , '' I said -- it was all I _ could _ say , for their mistake about myself was choking me . Perhaps my emotion appeased both of them , for after a moment Angela beat out Giovanni 's pillow and straightened his counterpane , and then told him to lie down and be quiet , while she brought a chair for me and took off her things in her own bedroom . But hardly had she gone into an adjoining chamber when the sick man raised himself again and , reaching over in my direction , told me in a hoarse whisper the story of the first night of her present way of life -- how the doctor had said he must be removed to the hospital ; how Agnes would not part with him ; how the landlord had threatened to turn them out ; and how at last , after sitting with her head in her hands the whole evening , Aggie had got up and gone out and , coming back at midnight , had thrown two sovereigns on the table and said , `` There you are , Giovanni -- that 's our rent and your eggs and milk for one week , anyway . '' By this time Angela had returned to the room -LRB- her paint and rouge washed off , and her gay clothes replaced by a simple woollen jacket over a plain underskirt -RRB- , and she began to beat up an egg , to boil some milk , to pour out a dose of medicine , and to do , with all a good woman 's tact , a good woman 's tenderness , the little services of which an invalid stands in need . Oh heavens , how beautiful it was -- fearfully , awfully tragically beautiful ! I was deeply moved as I sat in silence watching her ; and when at length Giovanni , who had been holding her hand in his own long , bony ones and sometimes putting it to his lips , dropped off to sleep -LRB- tired out , perhaps , by talking to me -RRB- , and she , drawing up to where I sat by the end of the bed , resumed her self-defence , saying in a whisper that ladies like me could not possibly understand what a woman would do , in spite of herself , when the life of one she loved was threatened , I could bear her mistake no longer , but told her of my real condition -- that I was no longer a lady , that I had run away from my husband , that I had a child , and was living as a poor seamstress in the East End of London .