about six o'clock
The real advantages of his position , were , the innumerable practical hints and suggestions as to the mode of dealing with miscellaneous business , which he derived from a watchful attention to whatever passed in chambers -- to the mode , in which Weasel hunted up and applied his law , and reduced the facts involved in litigation into legal shape and language , in the process of pleading . The penetrating eye of Mr. Aubrey , thus closely fixed on everything that came under his notice , quickly began to discover and appreciate the good sense , the practical utility of most of the positive rules of law which he saw in operation ; and at the end of a fortnight or three weeks , he began to feel interest in the study upon which he had so vigorously entered , and in which he felt himself making real progress . Mr. Weasel , during even that time , perceived the prodigious superiority of Mr. Aubrey over another pupil , who had nearly completed his second year in Mr. Weasel 's chambers , after a twelvemonth spent in a conveyancer 's ; not , of course , in respect of legal knowledge , but of intellectual power and aptitude for business . -- Mr. Aubrey would return to Vivian Street about six o'clock each evening , a little fatigued with a very long day 's work , -LRB- for he was never later than five o'clock in entering his study , in the morning ;-RRB- but he was quickly cheered and refreshed by the sight of the fond and lovely beings whom he there rejoined , and who had been counting the very minutes till he returned . Every day knit that little family together , if possible , in stronger bonds of love ; for they clung to each other with a feeling of having been thrust out of the great gay world together , and sent , as it were , upon a pilgrimage afar , amid scenes of increasing gloom , difficulty , and danger . Each day that bore them farther from that of their expulsion from Yatton , mellowed , as it were , their recollections of past scenes , and poured upon their wounded feelings the soothing balm of pious resignation ; and sometimes , also , faint and trembling beams of hope concerning the future , would steal across the gloomy chambers of their hearts . Thank God , the view of the past presented to them no occasion for shame , for remorse , for self-condemnation !