Yet the alarm-clock was giving its usual
sturdy, noisy tick, and the sun was high. Then she refused to believe
that the alarm had gone off, and in order to remain firm in her belief
she refrained from any testing of the mechanism, which might--indeed,
would--have proved that the alarm had in fact gone off. It became
with her an article of dogma that on that particular morning, of all
mornings, the very reliable alarm-clock had failed in its duty. The
truth was that she had lain awake till nearly three o'clock, turning
from side to side and thinking bitterly upon the imperfections of
human nature, and had then fallen into a deep, invigorating sleep from
which perhaps half a dozen alarm-clocks might not have roused her.

She arose full of health and anger, and in a few minutes she was out
of the bedroom, for she had not fully undressed; like many women, when
there was watching to be done, she loved to keep her armour on and to
feel the exciting strain of the unusual in every movement. She fell
on Mrs. Tams as Mrs. Tams was coming upstairs after letting out the
doctor and refreshing herself with cocoa in the kitchen. A careless
observer might have thought from their respective attitudes that it
was Mrs. Tarns, and not Rachel, who had overslept herself. Rachel
divided the blame between the alarm-clock and Mrs. Tams for not
wakening her; indeed, she seemed to consider herself the victim of
a conspiracy between Mrs. Tams and the alarm-clock. She explicitly
blamed Mrs. Tams for allowing the doctor to come and go without her
knowledge. Even the doctor did not get off scot-free, for he ought to
have asked for Rachel and insisted on seeing her.

She examined Mrs. Tams about the invalid's health as a lawyer examines
a hostile witness. And when Mrs. Tams said that the invalid had slept,
and was sleeping, stertorously in an unaccountable manner, and hinted
that the doctor was not undisturbed by the new symptom and meant to
call again later on, Rachel's tight-lipped mien indicated that this
might not have occurred if only Mrs. Tams had fulfilled her obvious
duty of wakening Rachel. Though she was hungry, she scornfully
repulsed the suggestion of breakfast. Mrs. Tams, thoroughly accustomed
to such behaviour in the mighty, accepted it as she accepted the
weather. But if she had had to live through the night again--after
all, a quite tolerable night--she would still not have wakened Rachel
at 4 a.m.

Rachel softened as the day passe