eleven o'clock
` They were not difficult to find , ' said Mr. Holdsworth . ` It is the old story . He was , as Mrs. Smith told me , ` a great trial ' -- more and more disposed to be saucy and disobedient , taking up with the most good-for-nothing boys in the town , haunting those Chartist lectures , and never coming home in proper time at night . The very last evening , he had come in at eleven o'clock , and when his master rebuked him , came out with something about the rights of man . He was sent to Little Northwold , about the middle of the day , to carry home some silver-handled knives of Mr. Calcott 's , and returned no more . Smith fancied , at first , that he had made off with the plate , and set the police after him , but that proved to be an overhasty measure , for the parcel had been safely left . However , Miss Faithfull 's servant found him frightening Mrs. Frost 's poor little kitchen-maid into fits , and the next day James Frost detected him lurking suspiciously about the garden here , and set Warren to warn him off -- ' Louis gave a kind of groan , and struck his hand against the couch in despair , then said , anxiously , ` What then ? '