midnight
In the interval I called up Mrs. Klopton and announced that I would dine at home that night . What my household subsists on during my numerous absences I have never discovered . Tea , probably , and crackers . Diligent search when I have made a midnight arrival , never reveals anything more substantial . Possibly I imagine it , but the announcement that I am about to make a journey always seems to create a general atmosphere of depression throughout the house , as though Euphemia and Eliza , and Thomas , the stableman , were already subsisting , in imagination , on Mrs. Klopton 's meager fare . So I called her up and announced my arrival . There was something unusual in her tone , as though her throat was tense with indignation .