one o’clock
The clergyman who had undertaken to do duty for him in his absence had been unexpectedly summoned home again ; and Mr. Brock had no choice -LRB- the day of the week being Friday -RRB- but to cross the next morning from Douglass to Liverpool , and get back by railway on Saturday night in time for Sunday 's service . Having read his letter , and resigned himself to his altered circumstances as patiently as he might , the rector passed next to a question that pressed for serious consideration in its turn . Burdened with his heavy responsibility toward Allan , and conscious of his own undiminished distrust of Allan 's new friend , how was he to act , in the emergency that now beset him , toward the two young men who had been his companions on the cruise ? Mr. Brock had first asked himself that awkward question on the Friday afternoon , and he was still trying vainly to answer it , alone in his own room , at one o'clock on the Saturday morning . It was then only the end of May , and the residence of the ladies at Thorpe Ambrose -LRB- unless they chose to shorten it of their own accord -RRB- would not expire till the middle of June . Even if the repairs of the yacht had been completed -LRB- which was not the case -RRB- , there was no possible pretense for hurrying Allan back to Somersetshire . But one other alternative remained -- to leave him where he was .