About noon
But as all we did was done in ignorance , and should be so judged , I shall so narrate these passages as they appeared to us in the moment of their birth , and reserve all that I since discovered for the time of its discovery . For I have now come to one of the dark parts of my narrative , and must engage the reader 's indulgence for my patron . All the 27th that rigorous weather endured : a stifling cold ; the folk passing about like smoking chimneys ; the wide hearth in the hall piled high with fuel ; some of the spring birds that had already blundered north into our neighbourhood , besieging the windows of the house or trotting on the frozen turf like things distracted . About noon there came a blink of sunshine , showing a very pretty , wintry , frosty landscape of white hills and woods , with Crail 's lugger waiting for a wind under the Craig Head , and the smoke mounting straight into the air from every farm and cottage . With the coming of night , the haze closed in overhead ; it fell dark and still and starless , and exceeding cold : a night the most unseasonable , fit for strange events . Mrs. Henry withdrew , as was now her custom , very early . We had set ourselves of late to pass the evening with a game of cards ; another mark that our visitor was wearying mightily of the life at Durrisdeer ; and we had not been long at this when my old lord slipped from his place beside the fire , and was off without a word to seek the warmth of bed .