midnight
She was not nervous or impressible ; but the solemn , heart-felt manner struck her . Eva had been unusually bright and cheerful , that afternoon , and had sat raised in her bed , and looked over all her little trinkets and precious things , and designated the friends to whom she would have them given ; and her manner was more animated , and her voice more natural , than they had known it for weeks . Her father had been in , in the evening , and had said that Eva appeared more like her former self than ever she had done since her sickness ; and when he kissed her for the night , he said to Miss Ophelia , -- `` Cousin , we may keep her with us , after all ; she is certainly better ; '' and he had retired with a lighter heart in his bosom than he had had there for weeks . But at midnight , -- strange , mystic hour ! -- when the veil between the frail present and the eternal future grows thin , -- then came the messenger ! There was a sound in that chamber , first of one who stepped quickly . It was Miss Ophelia , who had resolved to sit up all night with her little charge , and who , at the turn of the night , had discerned what experienced nurses significantly call `` a change . ''