ten o'clock
` I read all your evidence , so like yourself as it was , but I want to know where you were sleeping . ' Phoebe found her present audience strangely more embarrassing than the whole assize court , perhaps because there the solemn purpose swallowed up the sense of admiration ; but she laughed at last at the boy 's disappointment at the escape of the thieves ; ` he would have fired a pistol through the keyhole and shot them ! ' When she rose to go , the children entreated her to stay and be seen by the others , but this she was glad to escape , though Lucilla clung to her with a sort of anguish of longing , yet stifled affection , that would have been most painful to witness , but for the hopes for her relief . Phoebe ordered her brother 's carriage in time to take her to breakfast in Woolstone-lane the next morning , and before ten o'clock Honor had heard the account of the visit in Essex . Tearfully she thanked the trusty reconnoitrer as for a kindness to herself , dwelling on the tokens of relenting , yet trembling at the tidings of the malady . To write and recall her child to her motherly nursing was the foremost thought in her strange medley of grief and joy , hope and fear . ` Poor Robert , ' she said , when she understood that he had organized Phoebe 's mission ; ` I am glad I told him to give no answer for a week . '