midnight
Heavens , what a delicious morsel a piece of a young peer would be to such fellows ! but I will not run that horrible risk . Lucy must come to me -- I am sure the prospect of a countess 's coronet ought to be a sufficient inducement to her . But , to think that I should run the risk of being shot from behind a hedge -- made a component part of a midnight bonfire , or entombed in the bowels of some Patagonian cannibal , savagely glad to feed , upon the hated Saxon who has so often fed upon him ! -- No , I repeat , Lucy , if she is to be a countess , must travel in this direction . '' The indelicacy and want of all consideration for the feelings of his father , so obvious in his heartless allusion to a fact which could only result from that father 's death , satisfied the old man that any reformation in his son was for the present hopeless , and even Lady Emily felt anxious to put an end to the visit as soon as possible . `` By the way , '' said his father , as they were taking their leave , `` I have had an unpleasant letter from my brother , in which he states that he wrote to you , but got no answer . ''