midnight
Rats scampering about in the attic above added to her terrors . The wind shook the windows of her room and howled disconsolately up and down . She bore it as long as she could , which was longer than most women would have borne it , and then knocked on the wall dividing her room from Hilton 's . But Hilton , with the bedclothes over her head and all the candles she had been able to collect alight , would not have stirred out of her room to save her mistress from dying ; and Susie , desperate at the prospect of the awful hours round midnight , made one great effort of courage and sallied out to fetch her . Poor Susie , standing shivering before her maid 's bolted door , scantily clothed , anxiously watching the flame of her candle that threatened each second to be blown out , alone on the wide , draughty landing , frightened at the sound of her own calls mingling weirdly with the creakings and hangings of the tempest-shaken house , was an object deserving of pity . It took some minutes to induce Hilton to open the door , and such minutes Susie had not , in the course of an ordered and normal existence , yet passed . They both went into Susie 's room , locked themselves in , and Hilton lay down on the sofa ; and after a long time they fell into an uneasy sleep .