nearly midnight
But having at last explicitly understood from me that Mr. Scribe 's note had not altered my mind one jot , my wife , to move me , among other things said , that if she remembered aright , there was a statute placing the keeping in private of secret closets on the same unlawful footing with the keeping of gunpowder . But it had no effect . A few days after , my spouse changed her key . It was nearly midnight , and all were in bed but ourselves , who sat up , one in each chimney-corner ; she , needles in hand , indefatigably knitting a sock ; I , pipe in mouth , indolently weaving my vapors . It was one of the first of the chill nights in autumn . There was a fire on the hearth , burning low . The air without was torpid and heavy ; the wood , by an oversight , of the sort called soggy .