ten minutes past
nine
The cold drove her to the couch , to lie under half a dozen of the dressing-gowns and presently to fall into a sleep of exhaustion . When she awoke after what she thought was a few minutes of unconsciousness , the clamor of traffic in the Rue de Rivoli startled her . She started up , glanced at the clock on the chimneypiece . It was ten minutes past nine ! When , by all the rules governing the action of the nerves , she ought to have passed a wakeful night she had overslept more than an hour . Indeed , she had had the first sound and prolonged sleep that had come to her since the honeymoon began ; for until then she had slept alone all her life and the new order had almost given her chronic insomnia . She rang for her maid and began to dress .