midnight
His head was aching from a bump against the edge of a step , and his cold was much worse ; no wonder , said my mother ; but she was always softened by any ailment , and feared that the phantoms were the effect of coming illness . I have always thought that if Clarence could have come home from his court-martial with a brain fever he would have earned immediate forgiveness ; but unluckily for him , he was a very healthy person . All three of us were summoned to the tribunal in the study , where my father and my mother sat in judgment on what they termed ` this preposterous business . ' In our morning senses our impressions were much more vague than at midnight , and we betrayed some confusion ; but Griff and I had a strong instinct of sheltering Clarence , and we stoutly declared the noises to be beyond the capacities of wind , rats , or cats ; that the light was visible and inexplicable ; and that though we had seen nothing else , we could not doubt that Clarence did . ` Thought he did , ' corrected my father . ` Without discussing the word , ' said Griff , ` I mean that the effect on his senses was the same as the actual sight . You could not look at him without being certain . '