midnight
To be sure , his mother -LRB- a widow in narrow circumstances -RRB- had written pressing him to take a holiday ` at home , ' but he dreaded the thought of going penniless to his mother 's house , and there , perchance , receiving bad news about his book . An ugly feature of the situation was that he continued to feel anything but well ; indeed , he felt sure that he was getting worse . At night he suffered severely ; sleep had almost forsaken him . Hour after hour he lay listening to mysterious noises , strange crackings and creakings through the desolate house ; sometimes he imagined the sound of footsteps in the bare rooms below ; even hushed voices , from he knew not where , chilled his blood at midnight . Since crumbs had begun to lie about , mice were common ; they scampered as if in revelry above the ceiling , and under the floor , and within the walls . Goldthorpe began to dislike this strange abode . He felt that under any circumstances it would be impossible for him to dwell here much longer .