six o'clock
`` He may have slept here last night , and started for Southampton early this morning , '' he thought . `` Mrs. Maloney has been here , very likely , to make everything tidy after him . '' But as he sat looking lazily around the room , now and then whistling to his delighted canaries , a slipshod foot upon the staircase without bespoke the advent of that very Mrs. Maloney who waited upon the two young men . No , Mr. Talboys had not come home ; she had looked in as early as six o'clock that morning , and found the chambers empty . `` Had anything happened to the poor , dear gentleman ? '' she asked , seeing Robert Audley 's pale face . He turned around upon her quite savagely at this question .