midnight
`` But , Child , '' Susannah began with a laugh ; but Katharina gave her no peace till she yielded , and promised to bathe in the men 's room , which had not been used at all since the appearance of the epidemic . When Dame Susannah found herself alone she smiled to herself in silent thankfulness , and in the bath again she lifted up her heart and hands in prayer for her only child , the loving daughter who cared for her so tenderly . Katharina went to her own room , after ascertaining that the clothes she had worn this evening had been sacrificed in the bath-furnace . It was past midnight , but still she bid the maid sit up , and she did not go to bed . She could not have found rest there . She was tempted to go out on the balcony , and she sat down there on a rocking chair . The night was sultry and still .