midnight
`` It was n't becoming , '' said her mother , `` that she should be left to herself at the dead of night with no one but that lout Barnickel to look after her . '' So she came up from Sudsville at taps to discuss Mrs. Davies 's tea and preserves and , incidentally , her character with her blooming daughter , and Barnickel was sociably disposed , and the kitchen congress was in animated session when at 11.30 P.M. there came a sharp ring at the bell . `` Bless us ! I did n't suppose they 'd be home till long after midnight , '' said Katty , as she scurried away . It was n't the misthress , however ; only Mrs. Darling 's maid , to say that Mrs. Davies would not come home ; she would spend the night at Mrs. Darling 's , and Letty had come for her things . This necessitated Mrs. Maloney 's remaining all night to further look after Katty , and what more natural than that they should light Mrs. Davies 's lamp and spend a blissful hour in her simply furnished but pretty room , looking over the new gowns and garments and jimcracks , and so absorbed were they in this occupation that they took no heed of time ; and so it happened that the good old chaplain , coming shortly after midnight over from the hospital , whither he had been summoned to the bedside of a sorely-stricken trooper , rejoiced to see that Mrs. Davies , at least , had not gone to the dance , but was keeping wifely vigil in the sanctity of her own room , praying , probably , for the safety of the loved young husband now on perilous duty eighty miles away . At the corner , at the end of the long row of quarters , a solitary figure was standing .