midnight
I forgot to mention that when she seated herself on the steps she deposited by her side a very capacious bandbox in which , as is the custom among travellers of her sex , she carried a great deal of valuable property . Besides this luggage , there was a folio book under her arm very much resembling the annual volume of a newspaper . Placing this volume across her knees and resting her elbows upon it , with her forehead in her hands , the weary , bedraggled , world-worn Old Year heaved a heavy sigh and appeared to be taking no very pleasant retrospect of her past existence . While she thus awaited the midnight knell that was to summon her to the innumerable sisterhood of departed years , there came a young maiden treading lightsomely on tip-toe along the street from the direction of the railroad dépôt . She was evidently a stranger , and perhaps had come to town by the evening train of cars . There was a smiling cheerfulness in this fair maiden 's face which bespoke her fully confident of a kind reception from the multitude of people with whom she was soon to form acquaintance . Her dress was rather too airy for the season , and was bedizened with fluttering ribbons and other vanities which were likely soon to be rent away by the fierce storms or to fade in the hot sunshine amid which she was to pursue her changeful course .