twelve o'clock before
Sir Marmaduke , however , resolved that he himself would go out and see his son-in-law . He too had called Trevelyan mad , but he did not believe that the madness was of such a nature as to interfere with his own duties in punishing the man who had ill used his daughter . He would at any rate see Trevelyan himself ; -- but of this he said nothing either to his wife or to his child . -LSB- Illustration -RSB- Sir Marmaduke could not go out to Willesden on the morning after Lady Rowley 's return from River 's Cottage , because on that day he was summoned to attend at twelve o'clock before a Committee of the House of Commons , to give his evidence and the fruit of his experience as to the government of British colonies generally ; and as he went down to the House in a cab from Manchester Street he thoroughly wished that his friend Colonel Osborne had not been so efficacious in bringing him home . The task before him was one which he thoroughly disliked , and of which he was afraid . He dreaded the inquisitors before whom he was to appear , and felt that though he was called there to speak as a master of his art of governing , he would in truth be examined as a servant , -- and probably as a servant who did not know his business . Had his sojourn at home been in other respects happy , he might have been able to balance the advantage against the inquiry ; -- but there was no such balancing for him now .