nine o'clock
These changes in humour and disposition , here described all at once , were in themselves a series of delicate alterations of relative conduct spread over many months -- many winter months of long evenings and bad weather , which bring out discords of character , as a dash of cold water brings out the fading colours of an old fresco . During much of this time Mr. Preston had been at Ashcombe ; for Lord Cumnor had not been able to find an agent whom he liked to replace Mr. Preston ; and while the inferior situation remained vacant Mr. Preston had undertaken to do the duties of both . Mrs. Goodenough had had a serious illness ; and the little society at Hollingford did not care to meet while one of their habitual set was scarcely out of danger . So there had been very little visiting ; and though Miss Browning said that the absence of the temptations of society was very agreeable to cultivated minds , after the dissipations of the previous autumn , when there were parties every week to welcome Mr. Preston , yet Miss Phoebe let out in confidence that she and her sister had fallen into the habit of going to bed at nine o'clock , for they found cribbage night after night , from five o'clock till ten , rather too much of a good thing . To tell the truth , that winter , if peaceful , was monotonous in Hollingford ; and the whole circle of gentility there was delighted to be stirred up in March by the intelligence that Mr. Kirkpatrick , the newly-made Q.C. , was coming on a visit for a couple of days to his sister-in-law , Mrs. Gibson . Mrs. Goodenough 's room was the very centre of gossip ; gossip had been her daily bread through her life , gossip was meat and wine to her now . `` Dear-ah-me ! ''