midnight
It was `` the clergyman '' from up under the eaves -- an unfrocked priest , thin to emaciation , misery written upon his face even more deeply than weakness . He hastily bundled the bones of two chops and a bit of bread into a stained and torn handkerchief , and sprang away up the stairs toward his little hole at the roof . Howard was in a hurry and so put off for the time action upon the natural impulse . When he came back at midnight , there was soon a knock at his door . He opened it and invited in the man at the threshold -- a tall , strongly built , erect German , with a dissipated handsome face , heavily scarred from university duels . `` Pardon me for disturbing you , '' said the German . His speech , his tone , his manner , left no doubt as to his breeding though they raised the gravest doubts as to his being willing to give a true account of why he had become a tenant in that lodging house .