midnight
For Miss Walters was always fair . Billie had never been afraid of the dark . She was not really afraid of it now . But as the hours crept by and the place became still with the stillness of midnight , she began to feel uneasy and very , very lonesome . The silence was so deep that she was afraid to move for fear of breaking it , but at last , because her limbs were cramping and she was beginning to feel chilled , she rose from the couch where she had been sitting and began moving cautiously about the room . She stubbed her toe against one chair and almost fell over the other , making so much noise that her heart stood still and she looked fearfully over her shoulder . Finally she came over to the couch again and sank down upon it , feeling that she must cry or die .