eight
o'clock before
But the impression of this figure of Margaret -- with all Margaret 's character taken out of it , as completely as if some evil spirit had got possession of her form -- was so deeply stamped upon his imagination , that when he wakened he felt hardly able to separate the Una from the Duessa ; and the dislike he had to the latter seemed to envelope and disfigure the former . Yet he was too proud to acknowledge his weakness by avoiding the sight of her . He would neither seek an opportunity of being in her company nor avoid it . To convince himself of his power of self-control , he lingered over every piece of business this afternoon ; he forced every movement into unnatural slowness and deliberation ; and it was consequently past eight o'clock before he reached Mr. Hale 's . Then there were business arrangements to be transacted in the study with Mr. Bell ; and the latter kept on , sitting over the fire , and talking wearily , long after all business was transacted , and when they might just as well have gone upstairs . But Mr. Thornton would not say a word about moving their quarters ; he chafed and chafed , and thought Mr. Bell a most prosy companion ; while Mr. Bell returned the compliment in secret , by considering Mr. Thornton about as brusque and curt a fellow as he had ever met with , and terribly gone off both in intelligence and manner . At last , some slight noise in the room above suggested the desirableness of moving there .