midnight
And , as for mine host and Mr. Bela Tiffany and the old loyalist and me , we had babbled about dreams of the past until we almost fancied that the clock was still striking in a bygone century . Neither of us would have wondered had a hoop-petticoated phantom of Esther Dudley tottered into the chamber , walking her rounds in the hush of midnight as of yore , and motioned us to quench the fading embers of the fire and leave the historic precincts to herself and her kindred shades . But , as no such vision was vouchsafed , I retired unbidden , and would advise Mr. Tiffany to lay hold of another auditor , being resolved not to show my face in the Province House for a good while hence -- if ever . What a singular moment is the first one , when you have hardly begun to recollect yourself , after starting from midnight slumber ! By unclosing your eyes so suddenly you seem to have surprised the personages of your dream in full convocation round your bed , and catch one broad glance at them before they can flit into obscurity . Or , to vary the metaphor , you find yourself for a single instant wide awake in that realm of illusions whither sleep has been the passport , and behold its ghostly inhabitants and wondrous scenery with a perception of their strangeness such as you never attain while the dream is undisturbed . The distant sound of a church-clock is borne faintly on the wind .