midnight
No , no : it was all in vain , the last dying struggle of a bird , blindly , desperately beating its wings . She must be resigned to it ... . So for a long time she sat there by the table , lost in thought , unable to move hand or foot . It was past midnight when she struggled to her feet -- bravely . Mechanically she placed the loose sheets of her letter in one of her few books , for she had the strength neither to put them in order nor to tear them up . Then she went to bed , shivering and shaking with fever . The key to the riddle lay near at hand : she felt that the will of God was to be fulfilled .