midnight
Now everything was spoiled , and everybody had quarreled with everybody else . Whereupon Berta marched away to bed , leaving the swinging door unhooked and the outer door ajar . Bea was indisputably right in criticising her fellow conspirator as heedless . At midnight Gertrude sprang from her pillow , both arms flung out into the darkness , every nerve quivering as she listened for a second scream . She had chosen the inside bedroom that had a window opening on the corridor . Now in the breathless silence , she heard a swift creak ending in the bang of an up-flung sash . A swish of light garments , a thud shaking the floor outside , and then bare feet flying in frantic haste past her room and into the alleyway .