midnight
Footprints moreover , which lead up the steps to the door of that pavilion , wherein to my certain knowledge , no one hath had access of late . '' Something , of course , was going on at Acol Court , that strange and inexplicable something which he had tried to convey by covert suggestion to Mistress Charity 's female -- therefore inferior -- brain . Sir Marmaduke 's temper was more sour and ill even than of yore , and there was still an unpleasant sensation in the lumbar regions of Master Busy 's spine , whenever he sat down , which recalled a somewhat vigorous outburst of his master 's ill-humor . Mistress de Chavasse went about the house like a country wench frightened by a ghost , and Mistress Charity averred that she seldom went to bed now before midnight . Certain it is that Master Busy himself had met the lady wandering about the house candle in hand at an hour when all respectable folk should be abed , and when she almost fell up against Hymn-of-Praise in the dark she gave a frightened scream as if she had suddenly come face to face with the devil . Then there was her young ladyship . She was neither ill-tempered nor yet under the ban of fear , but Master Busy vowed unto himself that she was suffering from ill-concealed melancholy , from some hidden secret or wild romance .