ten o'clock
After locking us up regularly for the night , the `` Lady Anastasia '' withdrew , followed by Dinah ; and I would hear , later , sounds of festivity , in which her well-known laugh was blended , in the dining-room below , where , with Bainrothe and his friends , she held wassail , frequently , until after midnight . The groans of Mrs. Clayton would then commence , and , with little intermission , last until morning 's light . Yet it was something to be rid of Mrs. Raymond 's surveillance during those very hours I had selected for my second effort to escape . This must be hazarded , I knew , between eight and ten o'clock of the evening , during which time I had reason to suppose the house-door remained unlocked . The risk of encountering some one in the hall below -- for there was constant passing and repassing of footsteps during those hours -- constituted my chief danger ; but , at all hazards , the experiment must then , if at all , be made . October was fast drifting away , and I knew that at its close my course would be decided for me , should I not anticipate such despotism by setting it at naught , in the only possible way -- that of flying from the scene of my oppression . How to do this , and when , became the one problem of my existence ; and it was well for me that Mrs. Clayton was too great a sufferer to notice beyond my external safety , or she might have seen clear indications of some strange change at work , stamped upon my features .