nine o'clock
Once , Mrs. Maylie was called away , and after being absent for nearly an hour , returned with eyes swollen with weeping . All these things made Rose and Oliver , who were not in any new secrets , nervous and uncomfortable . They sat wondering , in silence ; or , if they exchanged a few words , spoke in whispers , as if they were afraid to hear the sound of their own voices . At length , when nine o'clock had come , and they began to think they were to hear no more that night , Mr. Losberne and Mr. Grimwig entered the room , followed by Mr. Brownlow and a man whom Oliver almost shrieked with surprise to see ; for they told him it was his brother , and it was the same man he had met at the market-town , and seen looking in with Fagin at the window of his little room . Monks cast a look of hate , which , even then , he could not dissemble , at the astonished boy , and sat down near the door . Mr. Brownlow , who had papers in his hand , walked to a table near which Rose and Oliver were seated . ` This is a painful task , ' said he , ` but these declarations , which have been signed in London before many gentlemen , must be in substance repeated here .