midnight
She started , and thought that she alone , perhaps , of all the people who lay within reach of those chimes had heard them . Why did she not go to sleep ? She was unused to wakefulness , and its novelty surprised her with all sorts of vague terrors . She turned from side to side anxiously while midnight sounded , but she was young , and in ten minutes afterwards she was dreaming . She was mistaken in supposing that she was the only person awake in Abchurch that night . Mrs. Cardew heard the chimes , and over her their soothing melody had no power . When she and her husband left the Limes he broke out at once , with all the eagerness with which a man begins when he has been repeating to himself for some time every word of his grievance -- `` I do n't know how it is , Jane , but whenever I say anything I feel you are just the one person on whom it seems to make an impression .