nine
o'clock
Of course he was very grateful to her for all her kind patronage ; but he could not help thinking it rather odd to find a woman lending courage to a man -- counselling him to be independent and to have no fear of ridicule . `` I recollect , '' he said to her , `` once hearing Lord Rockminster say that until a man has gone deer-stalking he can have no idea what extremes of misery a human being is capable of enduring . '' `` Lord Rockminster is incurably lazy , '' she said . `` I think if you found yourself riding along this strath some night about eight or nine o'clock , knowing that away up among the hills you had left a stag of ten or twelve points to be sent for and brought down the next morning -- then I think you would n't be reflecting on the discomforts you had gone through , or , if you did , it would be with pride . Why , '' said she , `` you surely did n't come to the Highlands to play at private theatricals ? '' `` I get enough of the theatre in the South , '' he said , `` as you may well imagine . '' But here was a bend of the river sheltered from the weltering sun by a steep and wooded hill ; and Miss Cunyngham , at old Robert 's suggestion , began work again .