About noon
But he judged it unnecessary : he had still something more to try , some more fresh application , of whose success he was as confident as the last , and his visit concluded with encouraging assurances which reached the ear , but could not enter the heart of Miss Dashwood . She was calm , except when she thought of her mother ; but she was almost hopeless ; and in this state she continued till noon , scarcely stirring from her sister 's bed , her thoughts wandering from one image of grief , one suffering friend to another , and her spirits oppressed to the utmost by the conversation of Mrs. Jennings , who scrupled not to attribute the severity and danger of this attack to the many weeks of previous indisposition which Marianne 's disappointment had brought on . Elinor felt all the reasonableness of the idea , and it gave fresh misery to her reflections . About noon , however , she began -- but with a caution -- a dread of disappointment which for some time kept her silent , even to her friend -- to fancy , to hope she could perceive a slight amendment in her sister 's pulse ; -- she waited , watched , and examined it again and again ; -- and at last , with an agitation more difficult to bury under exterior calmness , than all her foregoing distress , ventured to communicate her hopes . Mrs. Jennings , though forced , on examination , to acknowledge a temporary revival , tried to keep her young friend from indulging a thought of its continuance ; -- and Elinor , conning over every injunction of distrust , told herself likewise not to hope . But it was too late . Hope had already entered ; and feeling all its anxious flutter , she bent over her sister to watch -- she hardly knew for what .