about nine o’clock
De Stancy and his groomsman -- a brother officer -- slept at the former residence . De Stancy was a sorry specimen of a bridegroom when he met his sister in the morning . Thick-coming fancies , for which there was more than good reason , had disturbed him only too successfully , and he was as full of apprehension as one who has a league with Mephistopheles . Charlotte told him nothing of what made her likewise so wan and anxious , but drove off to the castle , as had been planned , about nine o'clock , leaving her brother and his friend at the breakfast-table . That clearing Somerset 's reputation from the stain which had been thrown on it would cause a sufficient reaction in Paula 's mind to dislocate present arrangements she did not so seriously anticipate , now that morning had a little calmed her . Since the rupture with her former architect Paula had sedulously kept her own counsel , but Charlotte assumed from the ease with which she seemed to do it that her feelings towards him had never been inconveniently warm ; and she hoped that Paula would learn of Somerset 's purity with merely the generous pleasure of a friend , coupled with a friend 's indignation against his traducer . Still , the possibility existed of stronger emotions , and it was only too evident to poor Charlotte that , knowing this , she had still less excuse for delaying the intelligence till the strongest emotion would be purposeless .