midnight
The heat to-night was very oppressive . A sort of steaming mist seemed to rise from the court , and no cooling breeze entered my opened windows . The clamour of the traffic in Fleet Street came to me but remotely . Big Ben began to strike midnight . So far as I could see , residents on the other stairs were all abed and a velvet shadow carpet lay unbroken across three parts of the court . The sky was tropically perfect , cloudless , and jewelled lavishly . Indeed , we were in the midst of an Indian summer ; it seemed that the uncanny visitants had brought , together with an atmosphere of black Eastern deviltry , something , too , of the Eastern climate .