midnight
The clocks in the house ticked terribly loudly . They could be heard through the silence of the night like warning voices . Oh , how quickly the time flew . It had quite lately been evening -- midnight -- and now the clock on the mantel-piece already struck a short , clear , hard one . The lonely woman pressed her hands to her temples with a shudder . How they throbbed , and how her thoughts -- torturing thoughts -- hurried along , madly , restlessly , like the hasty tick of the clocks . Everybody in the house was asleep -- the manservant , the maids , her husband too -- long ago .