Meanig of "before he didn't leap up"

[Ksguo]

'There was a knock on the door. It was still going to be a little time before he didn't leap up and stand at the end of the bed and wait for the door to be opened.'
In this context, does 'before he didn't leap up' have the same meaning as 'before he leapt up' ? I have never seen an example where 'before' is used with a negative verb after it.

[Torsten]

Where did you find this sentence?

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a professor and a university student in the professor's office

[Esl_Expert]

Hello Ksguo,

Yes, in the story, 'he' did in fact leap.

It sounds as if, in the story, 'he' has been in the habit of leaping up and standing at the end of the bed whenever someone knocks at the door. That's where 'he' always stood whenever 'he' was waiting for the door to be opened. That is apparently something 'he' has been doing regularly up to that point in the story. The author either wants or expects that habitual activity to eventually stop, but it hasn't stopped yet in the story.

Basically, 'it was still going to be a little time before he didn't leap up' means 'it was still going to take a little (more) time before/until he got out of the habit of leaping up' or ' it was still going to take a little (more) time before/until his habit stopped'.

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"Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are like to reap." ~ Samuel Butler