midnight
She 'll be back again before night . ' But it would be as well for the servants not to know anything of the affair : so he collected the clothes she had taken off the night before , and threw them into a fire-proof closet of which he always kept the key in his pocket . When he went down stairs he said to the housemaid , ` Mrs. Dempster is gone to her mother 's ; bring in the breakfast . ' The servants , accustomed to hear domestic broils , and to see their mistress put on her bonnet hastily and go to her mother 's , thought it only something a little worse than usual that she should have gone thither in consequence of a violent quarrel , either at midnight , or in the early morning before they were up . The housemaid told the cook what she supposed had happened ; the cook shook her head and said , ` Eh , dear , dear ! ' but they both expected to see their mistress back again in an hour or two . Dempster , on his return home the evening before , had ordered his man , who lived away from the house , to bring up his horse and gig from the stables at ten .