Midnight
Alice had not heard much of this harangue ; but what she did hear very slightly affected her strong , peasant-born nerves ; not half so much indeed , as the noise Mrs. Jones made in double-locking all the doors , and barring , as well as a peg and a rusty inch of chain would allow , all the windows -- which operation occupied at least an hour and a half . All at last was still . Mrs. Jones had gone to bed -- in the arms of sleep she had forgotten her terrors -- and Alice had crept up-stairs , and undressed , and said her prayers , and wept a little ; and , with the tears yet moist upon her dark eyelashes , had glided into dreams of Ernest . Midnight was passed -- the stroke of one sounded unheard from the clock at the foot of the stars . The moon was gone -- a slow , drizzling rain was falling upon the flowers , and cloud and darkness gathered fast and thick around the sky . About this time , a low , regular , grating sound commenced at the thin shutters of the sitting-room below , preceded by a very faint noise , like the tinkling of small fragments of glass on the gravel without . At length it ceased , and the cautious and partial gleam of a lanthorn fell along the floor ; another moment , and two men stood in the room .