midnight
From the door leading to the basement , to that opening into the parlor from the hall , she probably stepped lighter than she had ever before done since playing blind-man 's buff in early girlhood ; and it is doubtful whether that parlor door had ever before opened and shut with so little noise , since the skilful hanger first oiled the plated hinges . From the door to the back part of the room she went on tip-toe -- the fact can not be denied , -- little noise as her light shoes would have made on the heavy velvet . We all have something of the cat about us -- man and the other animals ; though the quality developes itself under different circumstances . Pussy treads even softer than usual , when after the coveted cream ; that larger pussy , the tiger , steals lightly towards the ambushed hunter who is to furnish him the next delicious meal ; and `` Tarquin 's ravishing strides '' are undoubtedly a misnomer , for the Roman must have been something more or less than man if he did not tip-toe his sandals or cast them off altogether , when he stole towards the midnight bed of Lucrece . The cream for which Pussy Harris -- shame upon her for that same ! -- was just then making an adventurous foray , -- was _ a hearing of the conversation which might take place between Richard Crawford and his cousin _ ! That conversation she had determined to hear , at all hazards ; for what , she scarcely knew herself , but with an undefinable impression that she must hear it -- that -LRB- Jesuitically , and of course most horrible doctrine ! -RRB-