eight o'clock
`` Yes , '' answered the toll-gatherer . `` He passed the gate just before you drove up , and yonder he rides now , if you can see him through the dusk . He 's been to Woodfield this afternoon , attending a sheriff 's sale there . The old man generally shakes hands and has a little chat with me ; but to-night , he nodded , -- as if to say , ` Charge my toll , ' and jogged on ; for wherever he goes , he must always be at home by eight o'clock . '' `` So they tell me , '' said Dominicus . `` I never saw a man look so yellow and thin as the squire does , '' continued the toll-gatherer . `` Says I to myself , to-night , he 's more like a ghost or an old mummy than good flesh and blood . ''