nine o'clock
Of that evening the events following the hurried departure from the Ambassadeurs were always blurred in Carlisle 's memory . To Mrs. Heth each detail remained crystal-clear as long as she lived . Upon her shoulders , as usual , fell the burden of managing everything so that the least harm should befall . Defeated , and consequently hatted and cloaked , she emerged from the bedroom at quarter-past nine o'clock , commissioned by her daughter to tell Canning everything . But what was everything , and what the mere gibberish of nervous insanity , to pass forever from the horizon with a good night 's sleep ? Mrs. Heth , seated before her living Order of Merit in the sitting-room , interpreted her commission with a mother 's wise discretion . Canning , at this point , knew only that Carlisle was unnerved by news of the death of a friend .