midnight
He and George stopped by the archway while the fly drew up at the door , and the surprised servants came out to welcome their master and mistress . `` I think the storm will hold off to-night , '' said the baronet looking up at the sky ; `` but we shall certainly have it tomorrow . '' Sir Michael was mistaken in his prophecy upon the weather . The storm did not hold off until next day , but burst with terrible fury over the village of Audley about half an hour before midnight . Robert Audley took the thunder and lightning with the same composure with which he accepted all the other ills of life . He lay on a sofa in the sitting-room , ostensibly reading the five-days-old Chelmsford paper , and regaling himself occasionally with a few sips from a large tumbler of cold punch . But the storm had quite a different effect upon George Talboys .