nearly midnight
She would n't believe my protestations , I knew ; but she might believe deeds , not words . So I shut myself up in my room and took down my arithmetic , and worked out sum after sum all off my own bat , till my brain reeled and I could hardly distinguish one figure from another . Some I knew were wrong , others I hoped were right ; all were _ bona fide _ . I stuck to it till nearly midnight , and then , merely writing my name on the top , put them into an envelope , under the flap of which I wrote , `` I 've burnt the crib . Try me this once , '' and posted them to my offended teacher . No answer came for twenty-four hours , which I spent on pins and needles , working away frantically during my leisure hours , and occupying part of my business time in personally avenging an insult offered to Miss Steele 's name by one of my guardian 's junior clerks . I wished she could have seen me .