midnight
Most of our foolish conceits explain themselves in some such simple way . And , yet , for all that , I confess , that , when I woke up the other evening , and heard , first a sweet complaining cry , and then footsteps , and then the dragging sound , -- nothing but his bed , I am quite sure , -- I felt a stirring in the roots of my hair as the feasters did in Keats 's terrible poem of `` Lamia . '' There is nothing very odd in my feeling nervous when I happen to lie awake and get listening for sounds . Just keep your ears open any time after midnight , when you are lying in bed in a lone attic of a dark night . What horrid , strange , suggestive , unaccountable noises you will hear ! The stillness of night is a vulgar error . All the dead things seem to be alive .