nine o'clock
The trouble that one neighbor may give to another , simply by living within a mile of one , is incredible ; but until this new accession to her family , Mrs. Pennel had always been able to comfort herself with the idea that the child under her particular training was as well-behaved as any of those of her more demonstrative friend . But now , all this consolation had been put to flight ; she could not meet Mrs. Kittridge without most humiliating recollections . On Sundays , when those sharp black eyes gleamed upon her through the rails of the neighboring pew , her very soul shrank within her , as she recollected all the compromises and defeats of the week before . It seemed to her that Mrs. Kittridge saw it all , -- how she had ingloriously bought peace with gingerbread , instead of maintaining it by rightful authority , -- how young master had sat up till nine o'clock on divers occasions , and even kept little Mara up for his lordly pleasure . How she trembled at every movement of the child in the pew , dreading some patent and open impropriety which should bring scandal on her government ! This was the more to be feared , as the first effort to initiate the youthful neophyte in the decorums of the sanctuary had proved anything but a success , -- insomuch that Zephaniah Pennel had been obliged to carry him out from the church ; therefore , poor Mrs. Pennel was thankful every Sunday when she got her little charge home without any distinct scandal and breach of the peace . But , after all , he was such a handsome and engaging little wretch , attracting all eyes wherever he went , and so full of saucy drolleries , that it seemed to Mrs. Pennel that everything and everybody conspired to help her spoil him .