two o'clock in the morning
He wanted Peter to sleep in the manor within calling distance , and he might begin this very night and stay on for a week or so as a sort of test whether he liked the position or not . The Captain waited with some concern until Peter agreed to a trial . After that the old gentleman talked on interminably of the South , of the suffrage movement , the destructive influence it would have on the home , the Irish question , the Indian question , whether the mound-builders did not spring from the two lost tribes of Israel -- an endless outpouring of curious facts , quaint reasoning , and extraordinary conclusions , all delivered with the great dignity and in the flowing periods of an orator . It was fully two o'clock in the morning when it occurred to the Captain that his new secretary might like to go to bed . The old man took the hand-lamp which was still burning and led the way out to the back piazza past a number of doors to a corner bedroom . He shuffled along in his carpet slippers , followed by the black-and-white cat , which ran along , making futile efforts to rub itself against his lean shanks . Peter followed in a sort of stupor from the flood of words , ideas , and strange fancies that had been poured into his ears .