midnight
`` Enter ! whoever you are , '' he said . `` No one shall ask in vain at Kingsland , this happy night . '' He stepped back , and , all covered with snow , the midnight intruder entered and stood before him . And Sir Jasper Kingsland saw the strangest-looking creature he had ever beheld in the whole course of his life . An old man , yet tall and upright , wearing a trailing cloak of dull black , long gray hair flowing over the shoulders , and tight to the scalp a skull-cap of black velvet . A patriarchal board , abundant and silver-white , streamed down his breast , and out of a dull , white face , seamed and wrinkled , looked a pair of eyes piercing and black .