midnight
The desk in the centre of the room , the shining backs of law books , the crimson rugs , the engravings on the walls , the easy chair drawn up before the hearth , presented to him as he entered now the security of individual isolation . He had felt the same sense of restfulness when he had ascended , after the day 's work , to the little whitewashed attic of his father 's house . To-night he liked the glow because it suggested warmth , but he could not have told off-hand the colour of the carpet or the subjects of the engravings on the wall ; and had he found a white pine chair in place of the red leathern one , he would have used it without an admission of discomfort . In the midnight hours he liked the empty house about him -- the silence and the safeguard of his loneliness . The deserted reception-rooms at the end of the hall pleased him by their stillness and the cold of their fireless grates . Even the stiff , unyielding furniture , in its fancy dress of satin brocade , soothed him by its remoteness when he passed it wrapped in thought . He flung himself into the easy chair , raised the light by which he read , and unfolded a newspaper lying upon his desk .