midnight
Returning to Boston , he frequently called to pay his respects to Mr. and Mrs. Newville , never failing to ask for Miss Newville , prolonging his calls till past the ringing of the nine o'clock bell . He was very courteous , and had many entertaining stories to tell of life in England , of his ancestral home at Halford . The old castle was gray with age ; the ivy , ever green upon its towers , hanging in graceful festoons from the battlements . Herds of deer roamed the surrounding park ; pheasants crooned and cackled beneath the stalwart oaks ; hares burrowed in the forest ; nightingales made the midnight melodious with their dulcet singing . Old tapestries adorned the walls of the spacious apartments . In the banqueting halls were the portraits of ancestors -- lords , dukes , and earls reaching down to the first Earl Upperton created by William of Normandy , for valor on the field of Hastings . On the maternal side were portraits of beautiful ladies who had been maids of honor and train-bearers at the coronations of Margaret and Elizabeth .