eleven o'clock
It told him to wait , but for what was he to wait ? Half ashamed of himself for having yielded to the tempter , restless and uneasy in spirit , he wandered from room to room in the twilight , abandoned to gloomy and miserable thoughts . The servants lighted the lamps in the many chambers of Raynham , while Sir Oswald paced to and fro -- now in the long drawing-room ; now in the library ; now on the terrace , where the September moon shone broad and full . It was eleven o'clock when the sound of approaching wheels proclaimed the return of the picnic party ; and until that hour the baronet had watched and waited without having been rewarded by the smallest discovery of any kind whatever . He felt bitterly ashamed of himself for having been duped by so shallow a trick . `` It is the handiwork of some kind friend ; the practical joke of some flippant youngster , who thinks it a delightful piece of humour to play upon the jealousy of a husband of fifty , '' mused the baronet , as he brooded over his folly . `` I wish to heaven I could discover the writer of the epistle .