midnight
When William Dixon came home he found Susan and Willie sitting together , hand-in-hand , and apparently pretty cheerful . He bade them go to bed , for that he would sit up for Michael ; and the next morning , when Susan came down , she found that Michael had started an hour before with the cart for lime . It was a long day 's work ; Susan knew it would be late , perhaps later than on the preceding night , before he returned -- at any rate , past her usual bed-time ; and on no account would she stop up a minute beyond that hour in the kitchen , whatever she might do in her bed-room . Here she sat and watched till past midnight ; and when she saw him coming up the brow with the carts , she knew full well , even in that faint moonlight , that his gait was the gait of a man in liquor . But though she was annoyed and mortified to find in what way he had chosen to forget her , the fact did not disgust or shock her as it would have done many a girl , even at that day , who had not been brought up as Susan had , among a class who considered it no crime , but rather a mark of spirit , in a man to get drunk occasionally . Nevertheless , she chose to hold herself very high all the next day when Michael was , perforce , obliged to give up any attempt to do heavy work , and hung about the out-buildings and farm in a very disconsolate and sickly state . Willie had far more pity on him than Susan .