nearly midnight
On the evening before , Tatham with much toil had extracted a more or less , coherent statement from Netta Melrose , persuading her to throw it into the form of an appeal to her husband . `` If we ca n't do anything by reasoning , why then we must try pressure , '' he had said to her , in his suavest County Council manner ; `` but we wo n't talk law to begin with . '' The statement when finished and written out in Netta 's childish hand was sent by messenger , late in the evening , within a covering letter to Faversham , written by Tatham . Tatham afterward devoted himself till nearly midnight to composing a letter to Lydia . He had unaccountably missed her that afternoon , for when he arrived at the cottage from Pengarth she was out , and neither Mrs. Penfold nor Susy knew where she was . In fact she was at Mainstairs , and with Faversham . She had mistaken a phrase in Tatham 's note of the morning , and did not expect him till later .