nearly
three in the morning
Her husband , during our walk , had asked me to remain another day ; my promise to her son was an implication that I had consented , and it is not probable that the prospect was agreeable to her . This ought , doubtless , to have made me more careful as to what I said next ; but all I can say is that it did n't . I presently observed that just after leaving her the evening before , and after hearing her apply to her husband 's writings the epithet I had already quoted , I had , on going up to my room , sat down to the perusal of those sheets of his new book which he had been so good as to lend me . I had sat entranced till nearly three in the morning . I had read them twice over . `` You say you have n't looked at them . I think it ` s such a pity you should n't Do let me beg you to take them up .