about eight o’clock
Meanwhile Mrs. Thornburgh was laying plans on her own account . ` Ten o'clock-moonlight , ' said that contriving person to herself going home -- ` at least if the clouds hold up -- that 'll do -- could n't be better . ' To any person familiar with her character the signs of some unusual preoccupation were clear enough in Mrs. Leyburn during this Thursday evening . Catherine noticed them at once when she got back from High Ghyll about eight o'clock , and wondered first of all what was the matter ; and then , with more emphasis , why the trouble was not immediately communicated to her . It had never entered into her head to take her mother into her confidence with regard to Elsmere . Since she could remember , it had been an axiom in the family to spare the delicate nervous mother all the anxieties and perplexities of life . It was at system in which the subject of it had always acquiesced with perfect contentment , and Catherine had no qualms about it .