midnight on the twelfth
of May
Before entering , she glanced up at the lintel and saw that the ancient arms of the Serra were roughly sculptured in the old marble , and she knew that she was on the threshold of her home . It was more like a gloomy dungeon than the princely castle of which she had dreamed . That , indeed , was what it had been through many ages , and nothing else . She wondered where the great staircase could be where the poor ghost of Queen Joanna sat and shrieked at midnight on the twelfth of May . It was near the day , and not being at all timid , she smiled at the thought , as she went in . Three or four decently clad women in black came forward into the vaulted passage , and smiled and nodded awkwardly . They were the people Don Teodoro had engaged for her service .