midnight
Really ? ' and almost immediately called for a candle , and went to bed , as if he were not quite safe anywhere else . He did not actually stagger under the negus ; but I should think his placid little pulse must have made two or three more beats in a minute , than it had done since the great night of my aunt 's disappointment , when she struck at him with her bonnet . Thoroughly tired , I went to bed too , at midnight ; passed the next day on the Dover coach ; burst safe and sound into my aunt 's old parlour while she was at tea -LRB- she wore spectacles now -RRB- ; and was received by her , and Mr. Dick , and dear old Peggotty , who acted as housekeeper , with open arms and tears of joy . My aunt was mightily amused , when we began to talk composedly , by my account of my meeting with Mr. Chillip , and of his holding her in such dread remembrance ; and both she and Peggotty had a great deal to say about my poor mother 's second husband , and ` that murdering woman of a sister ' , -- on whom I think no pain or penalty would have induced my aunt to bestow any Christian or Proper Name , or any other designation . My aunt and I , when we were left alone , talked far into the night . How the emigrants never wrote home , otherwise than cheerfully and hopefully ; how Mr. Micawber had actually remitted divers small sums of money , on account of those ` pecuniary liabilities ' , in reference to which he had been so business-like as between man and man ; how Janet , returning into my aunt 's service when she came back to Dover , had finally carried out her renunciation of mankind by entering into wedlock with a thriving tavern-keeper ; and how my aunt had finally set her seal on the same great principle , by aiding and abetting the bride , and crowning the marriage-ceremony with her presence ; were among our topics -- already more or less familiar to me through the letters I had had .