nearly twelve o'clock
The silvery lips in Trinity steeple chime the hour of eleven ; St. Paul 's catch it up , and hosts of belfrys toss the hour to and fro like a shuttle-cork . Then the goblin bells hush themselves to sleep again in their dizzy nests , murmuring , murmuring ! -- and the pen of the pale book-keeper keeps time with the ticking of the office time-piece . It is nearly twelve o'clock when he reaches the door of a common two-story house in Marion-street . The door is opened before he can turn the bolt with his night-key , and the whitest possible little hand presses his . He draws it within his own , and places his arm around the daintiest little waist that ever submitted to the operation . Then the two enter the front parlor , where the dim light falls on Mortimer and a beautiful girl on the verge of womanhood .