eleven o'clock
Certainly had the Duke come to him that night , after the journey from Stamford , he would have capitulated . As he walked along and allowed himself to be talked to by Miss Penge , he did tell himself that she would be the better angel of the two . She could not hunt with him , as Arabella would have done ; but then a man does not want his wife to gallop across the country after him . She might perhaps object to cigars and soda water after eleven o'clock , but then what assurance had he that Arabella would not have objected still more loudly . She had sworn that she would never be opposed to his little pleasures ; but he knew what such oaths were worth . Marriage altogether was a bore ; but having a name and a large fortune , it was incumbent on him to transmit them to an immediate descendant . And perhaps it was a worse bore to grow old without having specially bound any other human being to his interests .