nearly twelve o'clock at
night
`` Now , '' she said , `` if I am Beauty , who are you ? '' That was when I was only twenty . And so I stood and stared , and felt a sort of grim satisfaction in the sense of my own loneliness ; for I had neither father , nor mother , nor brother ; and as I did so there came a knock at my door . I listened before I went to open it , for it was nearly twelve o'clock at night , and I was in no mood to admit any stranger . I had but one friend in the College , or , indeed , in the world -- perhaps it was he . Just then the person outside the door coughed , and I hastened to open it , for I knew the cough . A tall man of about thirty , with the remains of great personal beauty , came hurrying in , staggering beneath the weight of a massive iron box which he carried by a handle with his right hand .