the summer midnight
Her anxieties were increased by the fact that her faithful servant and adviser , James Steadman , was no longer the man he had been . The change in him was painfully evident -- memory failing , energy gone . He came to his mistress 's room every morning , received her orders , answered her questions ; but Lady Maulevrier felt that he went through the old duties in a mechanical way , and that his dull brain but half understood their importance . One evening at dusk , just as Hartfield and Mary were leaving Lady Maulevrier 's room , after dinner , an appalling shriek ran through the house -- a cry almost as terrible as that which Lord Hartfield heard in the summer midnight just a year ago . But this time the sound came from the old part of the house . ` Something has happened , ' exclaimed Hartfield , rushing to the door of communication . It was bolted inside .