midnight
But although I was in this fever , I did not stir ; she was resting in peace ; let her rest as long as she would . For more than an hour she lay there in my arms ; I grew stiff and very weary , but I did not move . At last I believe that in very truth she slept . The clock in the tower struck midnight , and the quarter , and the half-hour . I had rehearsed what I should say to my mother and what to Hammerfeldt . I had dreamed how this night should knit her and me so closely that we could never again drift apart , that now we knew one another and for each of us what was superficial in the other existed no more , but was swept away by the flood of full sympathy . She and I against the world if need be !