midnight
But there was no reason why Delaware should pay any respect to this , or hesitate to remove the bar securing one-half of the door , without which the lock retained no hold . Although Tom had indeed deserted his post , the organist was mistaken as to the cause and mode of his desertion : oppressed like every one else with the sultriness of the night , he had fallen fast asleep , leaning against the organ . The thunder only waked him sufficiently to render him capable of slipping from the stool on which he had lazily seated himself as he worked the lever of the bellows , and stretching himself at full length upon the floor ; while the coolness that by degrees filled the air as the rain kept pouring , made his sleep sweeter and deeper . He lay and snored till midnight . A bell rang in the marquis 's chamber . It was one of his lordship 's smaller economic maxims that in every house , and the larger the house the more necessary its observance , the master thereof should have his private rooms as far apart from each other as might , with due respect to general fitness , be arranged for , in order that , to use his own figure , he might spread his skirts the wider over the place , and chiefly the part occupied by his own family and immediate attendants -- thereby to give himself , without paying more attention to such matters than he could afford , a better chance of coming upon the trace of anything that happened to be going amiss . ` For , ' he said , ` let a man have ever so many responsible persons about him , the final responsibility of his affairs yet returns upon himself . '