midnight
In the course of the day she got a little better , but towards evening the feverishness increased again . Up till then she had been obstinately silent , but all of a sudden she began talking in a hurried broken voice . She was not wandering , there was a meaning in her words -- but no sort of connection . Just upon midnight , she suddenly , with a convulsive movement raised herself in bed -- I was sitting beside her -- and in the same hurried voice , continually taking sips of water , from a glass beside her , feebly gesticulating with her hands , and never once looking at me , she began to tell her story ... . She would stop , make an effort to control herself and go on again ... . It was all so strange , just as though she were doing it all in a dream , as though she herself were absent , and some one else were speaking by her lips , or forcing her to speak . ` Listen to what I am going to tell you , ' she began .