eight o’clock
He was a minute observer and an accomplished naturalist . His range of knowledge was , indeed , amazingly large for a man who has had to pass his best years in a dry and absorbing study : necessarily not so profound in each section as that of a special professor ; but if the science was often on the surface , the thoughts he deduced from what he knew were as often original and deep . A maxim of his , which he dropped out one day to Lionel in his careless manner , but pointed diction , may perhaps illustrate his own practice and its results `` Never think it enough to have solved the problem started by another mind till you have deduced from it a corollary of your own . '' After dinner , which was not over till past eight o'clock , they always adjourned to the library , Fairthorn vanishing into a recess , Darrell and Lionel each with his several book , then an air on the flute , and each to his own room before eleven . No life could be more methodical ; yet to Lionel it had an animating charm , for his interest in his host daily increased , and varied his thoughts with perpetual occupation . Darrell , on the contrary , while more kind and cordial , more cautiously on his guard not to wound his young guest 's susceptibilities than he had been before the quarrel and its reconciliation , did not seem to feel for Lionel the active interest which Lionel felt for him . He did not , as most clever men are apt to do in their intercourse with youth , attempt to draw him out , plumb his intellect , or guide his tastes .