night twelve o'clock
But it was illumination , a new gospel to her , this doctrine of General Culture ; it was the large easy-fitting formula which she had seemed to need . With touching simplicity she determined to follow the course recommended by the Head . Though by the time she had corrected some seventy manuscripts in marble-backed covers , and prepared her lesson for the next day , she had nothing but the fag-end of her brain to give to the healers and regenerators ; as for rising , Miss Quincey felt much more like going to bed , and it was as much as she could do to drag her poor little body there . Still Miss Quincey was nothing if not heroic ; night after night twelve o'clock would find her painfully trying to draw water from the wells of literature . She had begun upon Browning ; set herself to read through the whole of _ Sordello _ from beginning to end . It is as easy as a sum in arithmetic if you do n't bother your head too much about the Guelphs and Ghibellines and the metaphors and things , and if you take it in short fits , say three pages every evening . Never any more , or you might go to sleep and forget all about it ; never any less , or you would have bad arrears .