midnight
am dying ... and I can not -- tell him ! '' she breathed . Feverishly , weakly , she took up a pen , and upon a quarto page , already half filled with Leroux 's small , neat , illegible writing , began to scrawl a message , bending down , one hand upon the table , and with her whole body shaking . Some three or four wavering lines she had written , when intimately , for the flat of Henry Leroux in Palace Mansions lay within sight of the clock-face -- Big Ben began to chime midnight . The writer started back and dropped a great blot of ink upon the paper ; then , realizing the cause of the disturbance , forced herself to continue her task . The chime being completed : ONE ! boomed the clock ; TWO !