eight o'clock
The old servant slept away from the house , both because he preferred to and because while he did so he could not be tempted to wring the venerable necks of his employers . A few books on Commerce and Religion constituted the library of the two old people . They never cared to have a garden at the back of their house , because the shrubbery might conceal thieves . They fastened their door with bolts every evening at eight o'clock , and never went out without being obliged to , for fear of meeting dangerous people . And nevertheless , on the 29th of April , 1859 , at eleven o'clock in the morning , Nicholas Meiser was far away from his beloved home . Gracious ! how very far away for him -- this honest burgher of Dantzic !