three o'clock
Nobody , she thought , knew him as she did ; nobody could know how good and generous he was _ sometimes _ , and how frankly he would confess his faults , and what noble aspirations he had ! But there was no concealing from her watchful sense that Moses was beginning to have secrets from her . He was cloudy and murky ; and at some of the most harmless inquiries in the world , would flash out with a sudden temper , as if she had touched some sore spot . Her bedroom was opposite to his ; and she became quite sure that night after night , while she lay thinking of him , she heard him steal down out of the house between two and three o'clock , and not return till a little before day-dawn . Where he went , and with whom , and what he was doing , was to her an awful mystery , -- and it was one she dared not share with a human being . If she told her kind old grandfather , she feared that any inquiry from him would only light as a spark on that inflammable spirit of pride and insubordination that was rising within him , and bring on an instantaneous explosion . Mr. Sewell 's influence she could hope little more from ; and as to poor Mrs. Pennel , such communications would only weary and distress her , without doing any manner of good .