midnight
When Amabel had had her hot bath , and had drunk her sage tea by compulsory gulps , and been tucked into Ellen 's bed , her childhood reasserted itself . Gradually her body and her bodily needs gained the ascendancy over the unnatural strain of her mind . She fell asleep , and lay like one dead . Then Ellen crept down-stairs , though it was almost midnight , where her father and mother and grandmother were still talking over the matter . Fanny seemed almost as bad as her sister . It was evident that there was in the undisciplined Loud family a dangerous strain if too far pressed . She was lying down on the lounge , with Andrew holding her hand .