two in the morning
One precaution , and one only , did Zack observe while enjoying the dangerous diversions into which paternal prohibitions , assisted by filial perversity , now thrust him headlong , He took care to keep sober enough to be sure of getting home before the servants had risen , and to be certain of preserving his steadiness of hand and stealthiness of foot , while bolting the door and stealing up stairs for an hour or two of bed . Knowledge of his own perilous weakness of brain , as a drinker , rendered him thus uncharacteristically temperate and self-restrained , so far as indulgence in strong liquor was concerned . His first glass of grog comforted him ; his second agreeably excited him ; his third -LRB- as he knew by former experience -RRB- reached his weak point on a sudden , and robbed him treacherously of his sobriety . Three or four times a week , for nearly a month , had he now enjoyed his unhallowed nocturnal rambles with perfect impunity -- keeping them secret even from his friend Mr. Blyth , whose toleration , expansive as it was , he well knew would not extend to viewing leniently such offenses as haunting night-houses at two in the morning , while his father believed him to be safe in bed . But one mitigating circumstance can be urged in connection with the course of misconduct which he was now habitually following . He had still grace enough left to feel ashamed of his own successful duplicity , when he was in his mother 's presence . But circumstances unhappily kept him too much apart from Mrs. Thorpe , and so prevented the natural growth of a good feeling , which flourished only under her influence : and which , had it been suffered to arrive at maturity , might have led to his reform .