twelve o’clock
`` And how did he die ? '' I asked , interestedly . `` He just died in his chair one evening , in the room which he used as a library . It was his custom to sit there every night , when there were no visitors , reading , until twelve o'clock -- or later . He was a bachelor , and his household consisted of a cook , a housemaid , and a man who had been with him for thirty years , I believe . At the time of Mr. Maddison 's death , his household had recently been deprived of two of its members . The cook and housemaid both resigned one morning , giving as their reason the fact that the place was haunted . ''