nine
o'clock
`` Well , I do declare , Mr Forster , you have had a famous nap , '' cried Mrs Beazely , in a tone of voice so loud as to put an immediate end to his slumber , as she entered his room with some hot water to assist him in that masculine operation , the diurnal painful return of which has been considered to be more than tantamount in suffering to the occasional `` pleasing punishment which women bear . '' Although this can not be proved until ladies are endowed with beards -LRB- which Heaven forfend ! -RRB- , or some modern Tiresias shall appear to decide the point , the assertion appears to be borne out , if we reason by analogy from human life ; where we find that it is not the heavy blow of sudden misfortune tripping the ladder of our ambition and laying us prostrate , which constitutes life 's intermittent `` fitful fever , '' but the thousand petty vexations of hourly occurrence . -- We return to Mrs Beazely , who continued -- `` Why , it 's nine o'clock , Mr Forster , and a nice fresh morning it is too , after last night 's tempest . And pray what did you hear and see , sir ? '' continued the old woman , opening the shutters and admitting a blaze of sunshine , as if determined that at all events he should now both _ hear _ and _ see _ . `` I 'll tell you all , Mrs Beazely , when I am dressed .