midnight
`` You 've been a real comfort , '' Annie said , good-naturedly . `` You 're such a sensible child , Norma . I hope one of these days -- afterward '' -- and Annie faintly indicated with her eyebrows the direction of the front room from which the funeral procession would start to-morrow -- `` afterward , that you 'll let us know your husband better . And now it 's long past midnight , girls , and you ought to be in bed ! '' It was mere casual civility on Annie 's part , as accidental as had been her casual unkindness a few hours before . But it lifted Norma 's heart , and she went out into the hall in a softer frame of mind than she had known for a long time . She managed another word with Chris before going to her room for almost nine hours of reviving and restoring sleep .