night-key

Lizzie stood quietly by him for a short while, and then walked on tiptoe to the door -- "It is George," said she, after peering into the gloom of their entry; "he has admitted him self with his night-key."

The Garies and Their Friends Frank J. Webb

Mr. Jennings's night-key it must have been, to be sure!

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 29, March, 1860 Various

After dragging his body into a dark alley, so that he might not be found by the watchman, I rifled his pockets of their contents, among which was the night-key of his house, which I regarded as a prize of inestimable value.

City Crimes or Life in New York and Boston George Thompson

Not a living creature was to be seen, save the dissipated family cat -- a very Lovelace of a cat that was not allowed a night-key -- who was sitting on the curbstone opposite, waiting for the hall door to be opened.

Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature Various

He ascended the steps of 545, let himself in with a night-key, and a moment later the gas in the upper front room was turned on, showing Mr. Rosenbaum's surmise to be correct.

That Mainwaring Affair

'Leaving the corpse of Mr. Ross in the alley, I went straight to his house in Howard street, and admitted myself by means of the night-key which I had found in his pocket.

City Crimes or Life in New York and Boston George Thompson

When you come home tonight you knock; no more tiptoe, night-key business like last time.

Humoresque A Laugh on Life with a Tear Behind It Fannie Hurst 1928

By every right and by every moral evidence the man was strictly sober; and, therefore, it caused his friends all the more anguish to see him shake hands with the pump and try to wind his watch with his night-key.

Sketches New And Old Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 1922

Should I proceed to fall in love just to see if it would go to my head, and should it do so, my Dulcina del Toboso might marry me before I recovered my mental equipoise, and I would awaken to find my liberty a has-been and my night-key non est.

The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 10 1905

He came home late one evening from church meeting, letting himself into the parsonage with his night-key, and, not seeing his wife in the sitting-room, where she was in the habit of reading and sewing, he walked on into the small sewing-room, where she sometimes sat at special work, thinking to find her there.

The Crucifixion of Philip Strong Charles Monroe Sheldon 1901