midnight
The trouble with Harrowby Hall was that it was haunted , and , what was worse , the ghost did not content itself with merely appearing at the bedside of the afflicted person who saw it , but persisted in remaining there for one mortal hour before it would disappear . It never appeared except on Christmas Eve , and then as the clock was striking twelve , in which respect alone was it lacking in that originality which in these days is a _ sine qua non _ of success in spectral life . The owners of Harrowby Hall had done their utmost to rid themselves of the damp and dewy lady who rose up out of the best bedroom floor at midnight , but without avail . They had tried stopping the clock , so that the ghost would not know when it was midnight ; but she made her appearance just the same , with that fearful miasmatic personality of hers , and there she would stand until everything about her was thoroughly saturated . Then the owners of Harrowby Hall calked up every crack in the floor with the very best quality of hemp , and over this was placed layers of tar and canvas ; the walls were made water-proof , and the doors and windows likewise , the proprietors having conceived the notion that the unexorcised lady would find it difficult to leak into the room after these precautions had been taken ; but even this did not suffice . The following Christmas Eve she appeared as promptly as before , and frightened the occupant of the room quite out of his senses by sitting down alongside of him and gazing with her cavernous blue eyes into his ; and he noticed , too , that in her long , aqueously bony fingers bits of dripping sea-weed were entwined , the ends hanging down , and these ends she drew across his forehead until he became like one insane .