four in the morning
Surviving Evils of the Reign of Terror Does there exist an incredulous , or jealous , denizen of another portion of our country who , knowing that the room in the wooden cupola over Mr. Carewe 's library was commonly alluded to by Rouen as the `` Tower Chamber , '' will prove himself so sectionally prejudiced as to deny that the town was a veritable hotbed of literary interest , or that Sir ` Walter Scott was ill-appreciated there ? Some of the men looked sly , and others grinned , at mention of this apartment ; but the romantic were not lacking who spoke of it in whispers : how the lights sometimes shone there all night long , and the gentlemen drove away , whitefaced , in the dawn . The cupola , rising above the library , overlooked the garden ; and the house , save for that , was of a single story , with a low veranda running the length of its front . The windows of the library and of a row of bedrooms -- one of which was Miss Betty 's -- lined the veranda , `` steamboat fashion ; '' the inner doors of these rooms all opening upon a long hail which bisected the house , the stairway leading to the room in the cupola rose the library itself , while the bisecting hail afforded be only access to the library ; hence , the gossips , ` eli acquainted with the geography of the place , conferred seriously together upon what effect Miss Betty 's homecoming would have in this connection : Dr anyone going to the stairway must needs pass her door ; and , what was more to the point , a party C gentlemen descending late from the mysterious garret might be not so quiet as they intended , and the young lady sufficiently disturbed to inquire of her father what entertainment he provided that should keep his guests until four in the morning . But at present it was with the opposite end of the house that the town was occupied , for there , workmen were hammering and sawing and painting day long , finishing the addition Mr. Carewe was building for his daughter 's debut . This hammering disturbed Miss Betty , who had become almost as busy with the French Revolution as with her mantua-maker . For she had found in her father 's library many books not for convent-shelves ; and she had become a Girondin .