midnight
The hour was late , and the young lady who had disembarked at Southampton that morning to come up by the `` steamer special , '' and who had then settled herself at an hotel only to re-settle herself a couple of hours later at a private house , was by this time , they might hope , peacefully resting from her exploits . There had been two men at dinner , rather battered brothers-in-arms , of his own period , casually picked up by her host the day before , and when the gentlemen , after the meal , rejoined the ladies in the drawing-room , Charlotte , pleading fatigue , had already excused herself . The beguiled warriors , however , had stayed till after eleven -- Mrs. Assingham , though finally quite without illusions , as she said , about the military character , was always beguiling to old soldiers ; and as the Colonel had come in , before dinner , only in time to dress , he had not till this moment really been summoned to meet his companion over the situation that , as he was now to learn , their visitor 's advent had created for them . It was actually more than midnight , the servants had been sent to bed , the rattle of the wheels had ceased to come in through a window still open to the August air , and Robert Assingham had been steadily learning , all the while , what it thus behoved him to know . But the words just quoted from him presented themselves , for the moment , as the essence of his spirit and his attitude . He disengaged , he would be damned if he did n't -- they were both phrases he repeatedly used -- his responsibility . The simplest , the sanest , the most obliging of men , he habitually indulged in extravagant language .