After waiting for a moment they both disappeared, and having turned on her pillow Rachel woke to find herself in the midst of one of those interminable nights which do not end at twelve, but go on into the double figures--thirteen, fourteen, and so on until they reach the twenties, and then the thirties, and then the forties.

She realised that there is nothing to prevent nights from doing this if they choose.

At a great distance an elderly woman sat with her head bent down; Rachel raised herself slightly and saw with dismay that she was playing cards by the light of a candle which stood in the hollow of a newspaper.

The sight had something inexplicably sinister about it, and she was terrified and cried out, upon which the woman laid down her cards and came across the room, shading the candle with her hands.
Coming nearer and nearer across the great space of the room, she stood at last above Rachel's head and said, "Not asleep?
Let me make you comfortable." She put down the candle and began to arrange the bedclothes.

It struck Rachel that a woman who sat playing cards in a cavern all night long would have very cold hands, and she shrunk from the touch of them.
"Why, there's a toe all the way down there!" the woman said, proceeding to tuck in the bedclothes.