twelve o'clock
`` You need have no apprehension ; you shall be paid for your trouble . Has he been long ill ? '' `` Well , sir , he took the cold as were the beginning of his illness a fortnight ago come next Thursday . You may remember , perhaps , as it came on awful wet in the afternoon , last Thursday week , and Mr. Saltram was out in the rain , and walked home in it , -- not being able to get a cab , I suppose , or perhaps not caring to get one , for he was always a careless gentleman in such respects , -- and come in wet through to the skin ; and instead of changing his clothes , as a Christian would have done , just gives himself a shake like , as he might have been a New-fondling dog that had been swimming , and sits down before the fire , which of course drawed out the steam from his things and made it worse , and writes away for dear life till twelve o'clock that night , having something particular to finish for them magazines , he says ; and so , when I come to tidy-up a bit the last thing at night , I found him sitting at the table writing , and did n't take no more notice of me than a dog , which was his way , though never meant unkindly -- quite the reverse . '' The laundress paused to draw breath , and to pour a dose of medicine from one of the bottles on the table . `` Well , sir , the next day , he had a vi ` lent cold , as you may suppose , and was low and languid-like , but went on with his writing , and it were n't no good asking him not . ` I want money , Mrs. Pratt , ' he said ; ` you ca n't tell how bad I want money , and these people pay me for my stuff as fast as I send it in . '