eleven o'clock
The day after this conversation we fell in with several vessels windbound at the entrance of the Channel . I took charge of one , and the wind shifting to the S.W. , and blowing strong , I carried her up to the Pool . As soon as I could leave her I took a boat to go down to Greenwich , as I was most anxious to have a long conversation with Virginia . It was a dark squally night , with rain at intervals between the gusts of wind , and I was wet through long before I landed at the stairs , which was not until past eleven o'clock . I paid the waterman , and hastened up to my mother 's house , being aware that they would either be all in bed or about to retire . It so happened that I did not go the usual way , but passed by the house of old Nanny ; and as I walked by with a quick step , and was thinking of her and her misfortunes , I fell over something which , in the dark , I did not perceive , and which proved to be some iron railings , which the workmen who were fixing them up had carelessly left on the ground , previous to their returning to their work on the ensuing morning . Fortunately the spikes at the ends of them were from me , and I received no injury , except a severe blow on the shin ; and as I stopped a moment to rub it , I thought that I heard a cry from the direction of old Nanny 's house ; but the wind was very high , and I was not certain .