About eleven o'clock
Mr. Gammon walked eastward at a rapid pace , and in a state of mind which can not be described . How he loathed the sight of Saffron Hill , and its disgusting approaches ! He merely looked into the office for a moment , saying that he felt too much indisposed to attend to business that day ; and then betook himself to his solitary chambers -- a thousand times more solitary and cheerless than ever they had appeared before -- where he remained in a sort of revery for hours . About eleven o'clock that night , he was guilty of a strange piece of extravagance ; for his fevered soul being unable to find rest anywhere , he set off for Vivian Street , and paced up and down it , with his eye constantly fixed upon Mr. Aubrey 's house ; he saw the lights disappear from the drawing-room , and reappear in the bedrooms : them also he watched out -- still he lingered in the neighborhood , which seemed to have a sort of fatal fascination about it ; and it was past three o'clock before , exhausted in mind and body , he regained his chamber , and throwing himself upon the bed , slept from mere weariness . Let us now turn to a man of a very different description -- Mr. Aubrey . He had spent nearly a year in the real study of the law ; during which time I have not the least hesitation in saying that he had made -- notwithstanding all his dreadful drawbacks -- at least five times the progress that is generally made by even the most successful of those who devote themselves to the legal profession . He had , moreover , during the same period , produced five or six exceedingly able political dissertations , and several important contributions to historical literature ; and the reader will not be surprised to learn , that such exertions as these , and such anxieties as were his , had told visibly on the appearance of Mr. Aubrey .