midnight
she said , laughing ; and with that my sun was blown out , my enchantress had fled away , and I was again left alone in the twilight with the lady hens . The rest of the day I slept in the corner of the hen-house upon Flora 's shawl . Nor did I awake until a light shone suddenly in my eyes , and starting up with a gasp -LRB- for , indeed , at the moment I dreamed I was still swinging from the Castle battlements -RRB- I found Ronald bending over me with a lantern . It appeared it was past midnight , that I had slept about sixteen hours , and that Flora had returned her poultry to the shed and I had heard her not . I could not but wonder if she had stooped to look at me as I slept . The puritan hens now slept irremediably ; and being cheered with the promise of supper I wished them an ironical good-night , and was lighted across the garden and noiselessly admitted to a bedroom on the ground-floor of the cottage . There I found soap , water , razors -- offered me diffidently by my beardless host -- and an outfit of new clothes .