twelve o'clock
It was then eleven o'clock . The house was very quiet . There had been the usual bustle attending the separation of a party of laughing , chattering girls for the night ; but this had not lasted long , for the great doings of the morrow called for bright eyes and fresh cheeks , and these can only be gained by sleep . In this stillness twelve o'clock struck , and the first hour of my anxious vigil was at an end . I thought of Sinclair . He had given no token of the watch he was keeping , but I knew he was sitting with his ear to the door , listening for the alarm which must come soon if it came at all . But would it come at all ?