nine o'clock
Poor Alicia saw all this , and bore her burden as well as she could . It seemed very hard to be a handsome , gray-eyed heiress , with dogs and horses and servants at her command , and yet to be so much alone in the world as to know of not one friendly ear into which she might pour her sorrows . `` If Bob was good for anything I could have told him how unhappy I am , '' thought Miss Audley ; `` but I may just as well tell Caesar my troubles for any consolation I should get from Cousin Robert . '' Sir Michael Audley obeyed his pretty nurse , and went to bed a little after nine o'clock upon this bleak March evening . Perhaps the baronet 's bedroom was about the pleasantést retreat that an invalid could have chosen in such cold and cheerless weather . The dark-green velvet curtains were drawn before the windows and about the ponderous bed . The wood fire burned redly upon the broad hearth .