about midnight
`` Tell me what you please : you may trust me . '' `` Gien I needit you to tell me that , I wad trust ye as I wad the black dog wi ' butter ! -- Hearken , Sandy Graham . '' The result of her communication and their following conference was , that she returned about midnight with a journey before her , the object of which was to place the letters in the safe keeping of a lawyer friend in the neighbouring county town . Long before she reached home , Mrs Catanach had left -- not without communication with her ally , in spite of a certain precaution adopted by her mistress , the first thing the latter did when she entered being to take the key of the cellar stairs from her pocket , and release Jean , who issued crestfallen and miserable , and was sternly dismissed to bed . The next day , however , for reasons of her own , Miss Horn permitted her to resume her duties about the house without remark , as if nothing had happened serious enough to render further measures necessary . Abandoning all her remaining effects to Jean 's curiosity , if indeed it were no worse demon that possessed her , Miss Horn , carrying a large reticule , betook herself to the Lossie Arms , to await the arrival of the mail coach from the west , on which she was pretty sure of a vacant seat .