midnight
The quietly pleasant room received me without a hint of the unusual . I lighted the lamps and sat down to my work . The house was still by ten o'clock , all lights out except mine . At midnight I lay down in the dark , the pomander under my pillow . Whether I put the gold ball there from sentiment , or from some absurd fancy about its perfume and mystic carving being somehow a talisman against evil , or because I feared the trinket might be taken from me during the night , I should be troubled to answer . I did place it there , and lay lapped in its sweet odor while the moments dragged past ; heavy , slow-footed moments of strain and dreadful expectation scarcely relieved by a hope uneasy as fear . The cock crowed for the first hour ; and for the second .