midnight
`` Did you speak these words aloud ? '' `` I did , Jane . If any listener had heard me , he would have thought me mad : I pronounced them with such frantic energy . '' `` And it was last Monday night , somewhere near midnight ? '' `` Yes ; but the time is of no consequence : what followed is the strange point . You will think me superstitious , -- some superstition I have in my blood , and always had : nevertheless , this is true -- true at least it is that I heard what I now relate . `` As I exclaimed ` Jane !