midnight
Zenobia happening to change her seat , I took the opportunity , in an undertone , to suggest some such notion as the above . `` Since you see the young woman in so poetical a light , '' replied she in the same tone , `` you had better turn the affair into a ballad . It is a grand subject , and worthy of supernatural machinery . The storm , the startling knock at the door , the entrance of the sable knight Hollingsworth and this shadowy snow-maiden , who , precisely at the stroke of midnight , shall melt away at my feet in a pool of ice-cold water and give me my death with a pair of wet slippers ! And when the verses are written , and polished quite to your mind , I will favor you with my idea as to what the girl really is . '' `` Pray let me have it now , '' said I ; `` it shall be woven into the ballad . '' `` She is neither more nor less , '' answered Zenobia , `` than a seamstress from the city ; and she has probably no more transcendental purpose than to do my miscellaneous sewing , for I suppose she will hardly expect to make my dresses . ''