midnight
Thus , it comes to pass , that a certain room in a certain old hall , where a certain bad lord , baronet , knight , or gentleman , shot himself , has certain planks in the floor from which the blood _ will not _ be taken out . You may scrape and scrape , as the present owner has done , or plane and plane , as his father did , or scrub and scrub , as his grandfather did , or burn and burn with strong acids , as his great-grandfather did , but , there the blood will still be -- no redder and no paler -- no more and no less -- always just the same . Thus , in such another house there is a haunted door , that never will keep open ; or another door that never will keep shut , or a haunted sound of a spinning-wheel , or a hammer , or a footstep , or a cry , or a sigh , or a horse 's tramp , or the rattling of a chain . Or else , there is a turret-clock , which , at the midnight hour , strikes thirteen when the head of the family is going to die ; or a shadowy , immovable black carriage which at such a time is always seen by somebody , waiting near the great gates in the stable-yard . Or thus , it came to pass how Lady Mary went to pay a visit at a large wild house in the Scottish Highlands , and , being fatigued with her long journey , retired to bed early , and innocently said , next morning , at the breakfast-table , `` How odd , to have so late a party last night , in this remote place , and not to tell me of it , before I went to bed ! '' Then , every one asked Lady Mary what she meant ? Then , Lady Mary replied , `` Why , all night long , the carriages were driving round and round the terrace , underneath my window ! ''