eleven o'clock
He said that his lordship was low , very low , and that the pulse was more irregular than he liked , but he committed himself no further than this , and went away , promising to send such pills and potions as were appropriate to the patient 's condition . A boy rode the same pony over to Langdale later in the afternoon with the promised medicines . Throughout the short winter day , which seemed terribly long in the stillness and solitude of Great Langdale , Lady Maulevrier kept watch in the sick-room , Steadman going in and out in constant attendance upon his master -- save for one half-hour only , which her ladyship passed in the parlour below , in conversation with the landlady , a very serious conversation , as indicated by Mrs. Smithson 's grave and somewhat troubled looks when she left her ladyship ; but a good deal of her trouble may have been caused by her anxiety about her brother , who was pronounced by the doctor to be ` much the same . ' At eleven o'clock that night a mounted messenger was sent off to Ambleside in hot haste to fetch Mr. Evans , who came to the inn to find Lady Maulevrier kneeling beside her husband 's bed , while Steadman stood with a troubled countenance at a respectful distance . The room was dimly lighted by a pair of candles burning on a table near the window , and at some distance from the old four-post bedstead , shaded by dark moreen curtains . The surgeon looked round the room , and then fumbled in his pockets for his spectacles , without the aid of which the outside world presented itself to him under a blurred and uncertain aspect . He put on his spectacles , and moved towards the bed ; but the first glance in that direction showed him what had happened .