ten
o'clock
`` You 're going to London ? '' `` Yes -- to cash the cheques , and make a few business arrangements . '' Mr. Dunbar bolted the great door as the footsteps of his friend the Major died away upon the gravelled walk , which had been quickly dried by the frosty wind . The banker had dismissed his servants at ten o'clock that night ; so there was nobody to wait upon him , or to watch him , when he went back to the tapestried room . He sat by the low fire for a little time , thinking , with a settled gloom upon his face , and drinking Burgundy out of a tumbler . Then he went to bed ; and the light of the night-lamp shining upon his face as he slept , showed it distorted by strange shadows , that were not altogether the shadows of the draperies above his head . Major Vernon walked briskly down the long avenue leading to the lodge-gates .