about two o'clock in the morning
If this child has idealized the strange little bit of humanity over which she seems to have spread her wings like a brooding dove , -- if , in one of those wild vagaries that passionate natures are so liable to , she has fairly sprung upon him with her clasping nature , as the sea-flowers fold about the first stray shell-fish that brushes their outspread tentacles , depend upon it , I shall find the marks of it in this drawing-book of hers , -- if I can ever get a look at it , -- fairly , of course , for I would not play tricks to satisfy my curiosity . Then , if I can get into this Little Gentleman 's room under any fair pretext , I shall , no doubt , satisfy myself in five minutes that he is just like other people , and that there is no particular mystery about him . The night after my visit to the young man John , I made all these and many more reflections . It was about two o'clock in the morning , -- bright starlight , -- so light that I could make out the time on my alarm-clock , -- when I woke up trembling and very moist . It was the heavy dragging sound , as I had often heard it before that waked me . Presently a window was softly closed . I had just begun to get over the agitation with which we always awake from nightmare dreams , when I heard the sound which seemed to me as of a woman 's voice , -- the clearest , purest soprano which one could well conceive of .