eleven o'clock in the morning
The training of these girls was the chief business of her life , and a very odd training it was , conducted in the noisiest way and on the most familiar terms . It was undeniable that the girls generally did well , and they invariably adored Mrs. Elsmere , but Catherine did not much like to think about them . Their household teaching under Mrs. Elsmere and her old servant Martha -- as great an original as herself -- was so irregular , their religious training so extraordinary , the clothes in which they were allowed to disport themselves so scandalous to the sober taste of the rector 's wife , that Catherine involuntarily regarded the little cottage on the hill as a spot of misrule in the general order of the parish . She would go in , say , at eleven o'clock in the morning , find her mother-in-law in bed , half-dressed , with all her handmaidens about her , giving her orders , reading her letters and the newspaper , cutting out her girls ' frocks , instructing them in the fashions , or delivering little homilies on questions suggested by the news of the day to the more intelligent of them . The room , the whole house , would seem to Catherine in a detestable litter . If so , Mrs. Elsmere never apologised for it . On the contrary , as she saw Catherine sweep a mass of miscellaneous _ débris _ off a chair in search of a seat , the small bright eyes would twinkle with something that was certainly nearer amusement than shame .