eleven
o’clock at night
he wrote in such a flurry . My heart warmed to my new lady when I read this : I was almost afraid it was too good news to be true ; but the girls fell to scouring , and it was well they did , for we soon saw his marriage in the paper , to a lady with I do n't know how many tens of thousand pounds to her fortune : then I watched the post-office for his landing ; and the news came to my son of his and the bride being in Dublin , and on the way home to Castle Rackrent . We had bonfires all over the country , expecting him down the next day , and we had his coming of age still to celebrate , which he had not time to do properly before he left the country ; therefore , a great ball was expected , and great doings upon his coming , as it were , fresh to take possession of his ancestors ' estate . I never shall forget the day he came home ; we had waited and waited all day long till eleven o'clock at night , and I was thinking of sending the boy to lock the gates , and giving them up for that night , when there came the carriages thundering up to the great hall door . I got the first sight of the bride ; for when the carriage door opened , just as she had her foot on the steps , I held the flam full in her face to light her -LSB- See GLOSSARY 19 -RSB- , at which she shut her eyes , but I had a full view of the rest of her , and greatly shocked I was , for by that light she was little better than a blackamoor , and seemed crippled ; but that was only sitting so long in the chariot . ` You 're kindly welcome to Castle Rackrent , my lady , ' says I -LRB- recollecting who she was -RRB- . ` Did your honour hear of the bonfires ? '