five in the morning
Now that the children 's barometer seemed at `` set fair '' she suddenly felt very tired . Jan had been watching her , and on that particular Sunday , had she been able to catch Meg before she got up , Jan would have dressed the children and kept her in bed . But Meg was too nimble for her , washed and dressed her charges , and appeared at breakfast looking a `` wispy wraith . '' She had slept badly ; a habit formed in her under-nourished youth which she found hard to break ; and she had , in consequence , been sitting up in bed at five in the morning to make buttonholes in garden smocks for Tony . This would have enraged Jan had she but known it . But Meg , frank and honest as the day in most things , was , at times , curiously secretive ; and so far had entirely eluded Jan 's vigilance . By the time Anne Chitt came with the awakening tea there was n't a vestige of smock , needles , or cotton to be seen , and so far lynx-eyed little Fay had never awoke in time to catch her at it .