four o'clock in the morning
Yet , despite all this , I was dreadfully depressed . Why , I could not at first surmise . It seemed to me , however , as though some horrid disaster were impending . I experienced all the sensations which make four o'clock in the morning so dreaded an hour to those who suffer from insomnia . My heart would race ahead , thumping like the screw of an ocean greyhound , and then slow down until it seemingly ceased to beat altogether ; my hands were alternately dry and hot , and clammy and cold ; and then like a flash I knew why , and what it was I feared . It suddenly dawned upon my mind that , by some frightfully unhappy coincidence , the address of Miss Brockton 's Academy for Young Ladies , whither I was bound , was precisely the same as that I had given the vulgar little spook at Florence as my own . I had entirely forgotten the incident ; and then , as I drew near to the spot whereon I was to have been made to suffer through the machinations of the local chapter of the Amalgamated Brotherhood of Spooks , my soul was filled with dread .