eight o'clock
Mrs. Hardcap started in dismay to gather up her basket of stockings , but on my positive assurance that we should leave forthwith if she stopped her work she sat down to it again . Luckily the night was cold and there was no fire in the stove of the cheerless and inhospitable parlor . So they were fain to let us share with them the cheery blaze of the cozy sitting-room . We did not start out till after seven , and we had not been in the room more than ten minutes before the old-fashioned clock in the corner rang out the departure of the hour and ushered in eight o'clock -- whereat James laid aside his book , and at a signal from his father brought him the family Bible . `` We always have family prayers at eight o'clock , '' said Mr. Hardcap , `` before the children go to bed ; and I never let anything interfere with it . '' This in the tone of a defiant martyr ; as one under the impression that we were living in the middle ages and that I was an Inquisitor ready to march the united family to the stake on the satisfactory evidence that the reading of the Bible was maintained in it . I begged him to proceed , and he did so , the defiant spirit a little mollified .