nearly eleven o'clock before
`` The charcoal-burner in Mark Ash is not so solitary as I am , '' thought Vixen bitterly . `` Charcoal-burning is only part of his life . He has his wife and children in his cottage at home . '' By-and-by she came out of the winding forest ways into the straight high-road that led to Briarwood , and now she put her horse at a smart trot , for it was growing dark already , and she calculated that it must be nearly eleven o'clock before she could accomplish what she had to do and get back to the Abbey House . And at eleven doors were locked for the night , and Captain Winstanley made a circuit of inspection , as severely as the keeper of a prison . What would be said if she should not get home till after the gates were locked , and the keys delivered over to that stern janitor ? At last Briarwood came in sight above the dark clumps of beach and oak , a white portico , shining lamplit windows .