nine o'clock
It was known in the town that she nicknamed him the `` Goat . '' As for Markley , the fight was gone from him , and his whole life was devoted to getting money . That part of his brain which knew the accumulative secret kept its tireless energy ; but his emotions , his sensibilities , his passions seemed to be either atrophied or burned out , and , sitting at his desk in the back room of the Mortgage Company 's offices , he looked like a busy spider spinning his web of gold around the town . It was the town theory that he and Isabel must have fought it out to a finish about the night sessions ; for there came a time when he went to bed at nine o'clock , and she either lighted up and prepared to celebrate with the cheap people at home , or attached one of her young men , and went out to some impossible gathering -- generally where there was much beer , and many risqué things said , and the women were all good fellows . And thus another year flew by . One night , when the great house was still , John Markley grew sick and , in the terror of death that , his office people say , was always with him , rose to call for help . In the dark hall , feeling for an electric-light switch , he must have lost his way , for he fell down the hard oak stairs .