midnight
`` My parents loved me tenderly , and , failing to soothe or conciliate me , they removed from the busy city to a secluded villa in the suburbs . Those labors which necessitated abrupt or prolonged sound were performed outside our grounds . The domestics were enjoined to conduct their operations with the utmost quietude . Carriages never came to the threshold , but stopped at the lodge ; the drives were strewn with bark to drown the rattle of wheels ; familiar fowls and beasts were excluded ; the pines were cut down , though they had moaned for half a century ; the angles of the house were rounded , that the wind might not scream and sigh of midnight , and the flapping of a shutter would have warranted the dismissal of the servants . Thick carpets covered the floors . My apartments lay in a remote wing , and were surrounded with double walls , filled with wool , to deaden communication . Goodly books were provided , but none which could arouse fears or passions .