About eleven o’clock
Then Alice withdrew , and the men were left alone . Adela did not go to bed . She suffered from the closeness of the evening and sat by her open windows , trying to read a chapter in the New Testament . About eleven o'clock she had a great desire to walk upon the garden grass for a few minutes before undressing ; perhaps it might help her to the sleep she so longed for yet feared she would not obtain . The desire became so strong that she yielded to it , passed quietly downstairs , and out into the still night . She directed her steps to her favourite remote corner . There was but little moonlight , and scarcely a star was visible .