ten o'clock on the 29th of October
Mrs. Alison was easily induced to promise the support of her presence to Lettice during the days or weeks which Lettice hoped to spend at Bute Lodge . She was a woman of unimpeachable decorum and respectability , and her presence in the house would , in Clara 's opinion , prove a bulwark against all dangers ; but , although evil tongues might be silenced by the fact of her presence , the old lady was singularly useless in the capacity of chaperon . She was infirm , a little deaf , and very shy ; but her presence in the house was supposed to be a sop to Cerberus , in the person of Mrs. Grundy , and Clara was less afraid for her friend than she had been before Mrs. Alison was installed at Bute Lodge . Punctually at ten o'clock on the 29th of October a brougham drove up to the gates of the prison in which Alan Walcott had spent his six months of retreat from the world ; and almost immediately Alan made his appearance , leaning on the arm of a warder . Lettice hurried to meet him , displacing the warder with a few words of thanks , and repressing with an effort the painful throbbing of her heart and throat . The sight of his shrunken form and hollow eyes , as he looked at her with pathetic and childlike trust , for a moment took away all her strength ; but when his hand was laid upon her arm , and she accommodated her steps to his slow and unsteady movements , he found in her no trace of the weakness she had overcome . It was clear that he had not yet made a good recovery from his fever .