But I wasn't at all sleepy and we lay in the dusk and talked till the familiar harsh voice of the hall clock rasped out nine o'clock.
"You go to sleep, please John," whispered Angel in a drowsy voice, "and I'll watch till ten."
I felt drowsy too, so I put my arm about the slumbering Seraph and soon fell fast asleep.
It seemed to me but a moment when Angel roused me. I know I had barely settled down to an enjoyable dream in which I was the only customer in an ice-cream parlour, where there were seven waitresses, each one obsequiously proffering a different flavour.
"Second watch on deck!" whispered Angel, hoarsely—"and look lively!"
"But I'd only just put my spoon in the strawberry ice," I moaned. "Can't be ten minutes yet."
"Oh, I say," complained Angel, "don't you s'pose I know when the old clock strikes ten? You've been sleepin' like a drunken pirate and no mistake. Must be near eleven by now."
"I'll just see for myself," I declared. "I'll go and look at the schoolroom clock." And I began to scramble over him.
"You will not then—" muttered Angel, clutching me. "I shan't let you!"
"You won't, eh? If it's really ten you needn't care, need you!"