seven o'clock
Till midnight , she supposed it would be in vain to watch ; but then , when the clock had struck twelve , and all was quiet , she would , if not quite appalled by darkness , steal out and look once more . The clock struck twelve -- and Catherine had been half an hour asleep . The next day afforded no opportunity for the proposed examination of the mysterious apartments . It was Sunday , and the whole time between morning and afternoon service was required by the general in exercise abroad or eating cold meat at home ; and great as was Catherine 's curiosity , her courage was not equal to a wish of exploring them after dinner , either by the fading light of the sky between six and seven o'clock , or by the yet more partial though stronger illumination of a treacherous lamp . The day was unmarked therefore by anything to interest her imagination beyond the sight of a very elegant monument to the memory of Mrs. Tilney , which immediately fronted the family pew . By that her eye was instantly caught and long retained ; and the perusal of the highly strained epitaph , in which every virtue was ascribed to her by the inconsolable husband , who must have been in some way or other her destroyer , affected her even to tears . That the general , having erected such a monument , should be able to face it , was not perhaps very strange , and yet that he could sit so boldly collected within its view , maintain so elevated an air , look so fearlessly around , nay , that he should even enter the church , seemed wonderful to Catherine .