midnight
_ '' I cried , taking note of the hour . `` I 've an engagement with Barlow at nine . '' And then a sweet-faced woman , who , I afterwards learned , was a professional nurse , entered the room , and within an hour I realized two facts . One was that I had lain ill for many days , and that my engagement with Barlow was now for six weeks unfulfilled ; the other , that my midnight visitor was none other than -- And yet I do n't know . His tricks certainly were worthy of that individual ; but Perkins and Tompson assert that I never entered the club that night , and surely if my visitor was Beelzebub himself he would not have omitted so important a factor of success as my actual presence in the billiard-room on that occasion would have been ; and , besides , he was altogether too cool to have come from his reputed residence . Altogether I think the episode most unaccountable , particularly when I reflect that while no trace of my visitor was discoverable in my room the next morning , as my nurse tells me , my blue necktie was in reality found upon the floor , crushed and torn into a shapeless bundle of frayed rags . As for the club entertainment , I am told that , despite my absence , it was a wonderful success , redeemed from failure , the treasurer of the club said , by the voluntary services of a guest , who secured admittance on one of my cards , and who executed some sleight-of-hand tricks that made the members tremble , and whose mind-reading feats performed on the club 's butler not only made it necessary for him to resign his office , but disclosed to the House Committee the whereabouts of several cases of rare wines that had mysteriously disappeared .