ten o'clock at night
Guessing the news it contained , she carried it up to her bedroom before opening it . `` It is all over , '' the letter ran ; `` Merton died this morning , and it was so unexpected , so terribly sudden ; and I was with him at the last moment . How shall I tell you about it ? It is anguish to think of it , and yet think of it I must , and of nothing else ; and now at ten o'clock at night I feel that I can not rest until I have described it all to you , and imagined what you will feel and say to-morrow when you read my letter . `` For the last two or three days he had seemed so much better ; but this morning after breakfasting he coughed violently for a long time , and seemed so shaken after it that we tried to persuade him not to go out . But he would not be persuaded ; and it was such a lovely morning , he said , and would do him good ; and he felt more hopeful and happy than ever -- a sure sign that he had reached the turning-point and was already on the way to recovery . So we came out , he leaning on our arms , to a garden-seat under the trees at the end of a walk , quite near to the house .