four in the morning
`` Nothing , ma'am , I was just going to observe , that ladies of a certain time of life , and widows especially , like a lover that seems a little ardent or so , all the better . '' Here Mrs. Bingham blushed , her daughter bridled , and I nearly suffocated with shame and suppressed laughter . `` After a most tender farewell of my bride or wife , I do n't know which , I retired for the night with a mind vacillating between my hopes of happiness and my fears for the result of a journey so foreign to all my habits of travelling , and in which I could not but tremble at the many casualties my habitual laziness and dislike to any hours but of my own choosing might involve me in . `` I had scarcely lain down in bed , ere these thoughts took such possession of me , that sleep for once in my life was out of the question ; and then the misery of getting up at four in the morning -- putting on your clothes by the flickering light of the porter 's candle -- getting your boots on the wrong feet , and all that kind of annoyance -- I am sure I fretted myself into the feeling of a downright martyr before an hour was over . Well at least , thought I , one thing is well done , -- I have been quite right in coming to sleep here at the Messagerie Hotel , where the diligence starts from , or the chances are ten to one that I never should wake till the time was past . Now , however , they are sure to call me ; so I may sleep tranquilly till then . Meanwhile I had forgotten to pack my trunk -- my papers , & c. laying all about the room in a state of considerable confusion .