six in the morning
Relief had come with Monday afternoon and Alice Renwick 's letter saying she would not attend the german , and now still greater relief in the news that sped from mouth to mouth : Lieutenant Jerrold was in close arrest . Armitage and Chester had been again in consultation Monday night , said the gossips , and something new had been discovered , -- no one knew just what , -- and the toils had settled upon Jerrold 's handsome head , and now he was to be tried . As usual in such cases , the news came in through the kitchen , and most officers heard it at the breakfast-table from the lips of their better halves , who could hardly find words to express their sentiments as to the inability of their lords to explain the new phase of the situation . When the first sergeant of Company B came around to Captain Armitage with the sick-book , soon after six in the morning , the captain briefly directed him to transfer Lieutenant Jerrold on the morning report from present for duty to `` in arrest , '' and no sooner was it known at the quarters of Company B than it began to work back to Officers ' Row through the medium of the servants and strikers . It was the sole topic of talk for a full hour . Many ladies who had intended going to town by the early train almost perilled their chances of catching the same in their eagerness to hear further details . But the shriek of the whistle far up the valley broke up the group that was so busily chatting and speculating over in the quadrangle , and , with shy yet curious eyes , the party of at least a dozen -- matrons and maids , wives or sisters of the officers -- scurried past the darkened windows of Mr. Jerrold 's quarters , and through the mysterious passage west of the colonel 's silent house , and down the long stairs , just in time to catch the train that whirled them away city-ward almost as soon as it had disgorged the morning 's mail .