midnight
`` Go to bed , auntie , '' pleaded Nellie ; `` I am sure you are fit for no work to-night ; '' and Aunt Debby seconded the words . But Miss Latimer shook her head with a slow , sweet smile . `` My last chapter must be finished this evening , child , '' she said , gently yet firmly ; `` after that I shall please you all by taking a long , long rest . '' Persuasion seemed useless ; and the midnight hour found Aunt Judith busy at her desk , filling up page after page with those wonderful thoughts of hers . Aunt Debby could not rest that night . Something in Miss Latimer 's manner and appearance had awed and frightened her , driving the sleep from her little bright eyes and chilling her heart with a vague , undefined sense of fear . At length , in the middle of the night , she rose , unable to quell the uneasy thoughts which haunted her , and stealing softly downstairs , opened the door of her sister 's sanctum and looked in .