midnight
Hartopp went back to his daughter 's home in a state of great excitement , drinking more wine than usual at dinner , talking more magisterially than he had ever been known to talk , railing quite misanthropically against the world ; observing , that Williams had become unsufferably overbearing , and should be pensioned off : in short , casting the whole family into the greatest perplexity to guess what had come to the mild man . Merle found himself a lodging , and cast a horary scheme as to what would happen to Waife and himself for the next three months , and found all the aspects so perversely contradictory , that he owned he was no wiser as to the future than he was before the scheme was cast . George Morley remained in the cottage , stealing up , from time to time , to Waife 's room , but not fatiguing him with talk . Before midnight , the old man slept , but his slumber was much perturbed , as if by fearful dreams . However , he rose early , very weak , but free from fever , and in full possession of his reason . To George 's delight , Waife 's first words to him then were expressive of a wish to return to Sophy . `` He had dreamed , '' he said , `` that he had heard her voice calling out to him to come to her help . ''