midnight
Then , as he thus created Captain Aylmer 's embryo family of unprovided orphans , -- for after a while he killed the captain , making him to die some death that was very disgraceful , but not very distinct even to his own imagination , -- as he thought of those coming pledges of a love which was to him so bitter , he stormed about the streets , performing antics of which no one would have believed him capable , who had known him as the thriving Mr. William Belton , of Plaistow Hall , among the fens of Norfolk . But the character of a man is not to be judged from the pictures which he may draw or from the antics which he may play in his solitary hours . Those who act generally with the most consummate wisdom in the affairs of the world , often meditate very silly doings before their wiser resolutions form themselves . I beg , therefore , that Mr. Belton may be regarded and criticised in accordance with his conduct on the following morning , -- when his midnight rambles , which finally took him even beyond the New Road , had been followed by a few tranquil hours in his Bond Street bedroom : -- for at last he did bring himself to return thither and put himself to bed after the usual fashion . He put himself to bed in a spirit somewhat tranquillised by the exercise of the night , and at last -- wept himself to sleep like a baby . But he was by no means like a baby when he took him early on the following morning to the Paddington Station , and booked himself manfully for Taunton . He had had time to recognise the fact that he had no ground of quarrel with his cousin because she had preferred another man to him .