midnight
Finally , he had fallen in love with , proposed to , and become engaged to , Jenny Launton . That was an improper thing for a younger son to do , anyhow , at his age , and Dick now perceived that the fact that Jenny was Jenny aggravated the offense a hundredfold . And , last of all , he had become a Catholic -- an act of enthusiasm which seemed to Dick really vulgar . Altogether , then , Frank was not a satisfactory person , and it would do him no harm to have a little real discipline at last ... * * * * * It was the striking of midnight from the stable clock that woke Dick up from his deep reverie , and was the occasion of his perceiving that he had come to no conclusion about anything , except that Frank was an ass , that Jenny was -- well -- Jenny , and that he , Dick , was an ill-used person . I do not like to set down here , even if I could , all the considerations that had passed through Dick 's mind since a quarter-past eleven , simply because the very statement of them would give a false impression . Dick was not a knave , and he did not deceive himself about himself more than most of us do . Yet he had considered a number of points that , strictly speaking , he ought not to have considered .