midnight
Not improbably he wished me to edit and publish a selection from a chest full of manuscript discourses that stood in the garret . Once , while Hillard and other friends sat talking with us in the twilight , there came a rustling noise as of a minister 's silk gown , sweeping through the very midst of the company , so closely as almost to brush against the chairs . Still there was nothing visible . A yet stranger business was that of a ghostly servant-maid , who used to be heard in the kitchen at deepest midnight , grinding coffee , cooking , ironing , -- performing , in short , all kinds of domestic labor , -- although no traces of anything accomplished could be detected the next morning . Some neglected duty of her servitude , some ill-starched ministerial band , disturbed the poor damsel in her grave and kept her at work without any wages . But to return from this digression . A part of my predecessor 's library was stored in the garret , -- no unfit receptacle indeed for such dreary trash as comprised the greater number of volumes .