five in the morning
`` And at the worst , '' Lady Fareham told her friends , `` a fortnight or so at the Wells helps to shorten the summer . '' It was the middle of August when they went back to Fareham House , hot , dry weather , and London seemed to be living on the Thames , so thick was the throng of boats going up and down the river , so that with an afternoon tide running up it seemed as if barges , luggers , and wherries were moving in one solid block into the sunset sky . De Malfort had been attached to her ladyship 's party at Epsom , and at Tunbridge Wells . He had his own lodgings , but seldom occupied them , except in that period between four or five in the morning and two in the afternoon , which Rochester and he called night . His days were passed chiefly in attendance upon Lady Fareham -- singing and playing , fetching and carrying combing her favourite spaniel with the same ivory pocket-comb that arranged his own waterfall curls ; or reading a French romance to her , or teaching her the newest game of cards , or the last dancing-step imported from Fontainebleau or St. Cloud , or some new grace or fashion in dancing , the holding of the hand lower or higher ; the latest manner of passaging in a bransle or a coranto , as performed by the French King and Madame Henriette , the two finest dancers in France ; Condé , once so famous for his dancing , now appearing in those gay scenes but seldom . `` Have you any commands for Paris , Hyacinth ? '' repeated Lord Fareham , his wife being for the moment too surprised to answer him .