a quarter past twelve
They went to bed late and they rose late at Windygates House . Under that hospitable roof , no intrusive hints , in the shape of flat candlesticks exhibiting themselves with ostentatious virtue on side-tables , hurried the guest to his room ; no vile bell rang him ruthlessly out of bed the next morning , and insisted on his breakfasting at a given hour . Life has surely hardships enough that are inevitable without gratuitously adding the hardship of absolute government , administered by a clock ? It was a quarter past twelve when Lady Lundie rose blandly from the whist-table , and said that she supposed somebody must set the example of going to bed . Sir Patrick and Smith , the surgeon and Jones , agreed on a last rubber . Blanche vanished while her stepmother 's eye was on her ; and appeared again in the drawing-room , when Lady Lundie was safe in the hands of her maid . Nobody followed the example of the mistress of the house but Arnold .