When Scrooge woke, it was still night.
He looked at the clock. “Midnight, but
that's impossible!” he exclaimed.
“It was already 2am when I went to bed.
Bah, that useless old clock must be broken!”
Then he remembered the apparition of the previous evening. The ghost of Marley had predicted three spirits would pay him a visit.
“Nonsense, I must have dreamt it!” He was still thinking things over when the clock struck one.
Suddenly there was a blinding flash in his room and a ghostly hand opened the curtains of his bed.