midnight
And now again the music swells , and the dreams live , and writhe to and fro more merrily than ever , taking hue from the many-tinted windows through which stream the rays from the tripods . But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven , there are now none of the maskers who venture ; for the night is waning away ; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-colored panes ; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals ; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet , there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears who indulge in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments . But these other apartments were densely crowded , and in them beat feverishly the heart of life . And the revel went whirlingly on , until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock . And then the music ceased , as I have told ; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted ; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before . But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock ; and thus it happened , perhaps , that more of thought crept , with more of time , into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled . And thus , too , it happened , perhaps , that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence , there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before .