one o’clock
Still she slept well during the latter part of the morning , and it was in vain that aunt and doctor and nurse all expostulated with her upon the excess of her ministration : nothing should make her yield the post until her brother was himself again . Nor was she without her reward , and that a sufficing one -- in the love and gratitude with which Leopold clung to her . During the day also she spent every moment , except such as she passed in the open air , and at table with her aunt , by his bedside , reading and talking to him ; but as yet not a single allusion had been made to the frightful secret . At length he was so much better that there was no longer need for anyone to sit up with him ; but then Helen had her bed put in the dressing-room , that at one o'clock she might be by his side , to sit there until three should be well over and gone . Thus she gave up her whole life to him , and doubtless thereby gained much fresh interest in it for herself . But the weight of the secret , and the dread of the law , were too much for her , and were gradually undermining that strength of dissimulation in which she had trusted , and which , in respect of cheerfulness , she had to exercise towards her brother as well as her aunt . She struggled hard , for if those weak despairing eyes of his were to encounter weakness and despair in hers , madness itself would be at the door for both .