midnight
`` If I did n't do that I should not be able to sleep . '' She spoke with fervour , for she felt that she must have two strings to her bow . If `` Mother '' failed , she must be able to fall back on `` Grandma . '' Barrie meant to be up and dressed before any one else in the house , but she lay awake until long after midnight , an unprecedented thing for her , and in consequence slept late , making up her accustomed nine hours . Usually she fell asleep at ten or soon after , and jumped briskly out of bed at seven , waked only by her eager desire for renewed life , in a perfectly new day which no one else had ever seen yet . This morning it was a repeated knocking at the door which mingled with her dreams and shook her out of them . What door could it be ?