midnight
Lie still and go to sleep , Clam , if you can ; and let me . '' Very promptly Clam obeyed this command ; but her less happy mistress , as soon as the deep drawn breaths told her she was alone again , sat up on her sofa to get in a change of posture a change from pain . How alone ! -- In the parlour after midnight , with the lamps burning as if the room were gay with company ; herself , in her morning dress , on the sofa for a night 's rest , and there on her blanket on the carpet , Clam already taking it . How it told the story , of illness and watching and desertion and danger ; how it put life and death in near and strong contrast ; and the summer wind blew in through the blinds and pushed the blinds themselves gently out into the room , just as Elizabeth had seen and felt in many a bright and happy hour not so long past . The same summer breath , and the summer so different ! Elizabeth could hardly bear it .