midnight
`` Oh , sir ! will you suffer me to be treated thus -- will you not make this man undo his hold , and let me retire to my chamber ? '' `` You should have been there long before this , Lucy , '' was the reply , in a grave , stern accent . `` You must not complain , if , found thus , at midnight , in a part of the building remote from your chamber , you should be liable to suspicions of meddling with things which should not concern you . '' `` Come , mistress -- pray answer to this . Where have you been to-night -- what doing -- why abroad ? Have you been eavesdropping -- telling tales -- hatching plots ? ''