noon
This was the point to which I had wished to bring him , and I was now again comparatively at my ease . I did not , it is true , like my position in his house ; but being freed from the annoyance of false professions and double-dealing I could endure it , especially as no heroic sentiment of hatred or jealousy of the director distracted my philosophical soul ; he had not , I found , wounded me in a very tender point , the wound was so soon and so radically healed , leaving only a sense of contempt for the treacherous fashion in which it had been inflicted , and a lasting mistrust of the hand which I had detected attempting to stab in the dark . This state of things continued till about the middle of July , and then there was a little change ; Pelet came home one night , an hour after his usual time , in a state of unequivocal intoxication , a thing anomalous with him ; for if he had some of the worst faults of his countrymen , he had also one at least of their virtues , i.e. sobriety . So drunk , however , was he upon this occasion , that after having roused the whole establishment -LRB- except the pupils , whose dormitory being over the classes in a building apart from the dwelling-house , was consequently out of the reach of disturbance -RRB- by violently ringing the hall-bell and ordering lunch to be brought in immediately , for he imagined it was noon , whereas the city bells had just tolled midnight ; after having furiously rated the servants for their want of punctuality , and gone near to chastise his poor old mother , who advised him to go to bed , he began raving dreadfully about `` le maudit Anglais , Creemsvort . '' I had not yet retired ; some German books I had got hold of had kept me up late ; I heard the uproar below , and could distinguish the director 's voice exalted in a manner as appalling as it was unusual . Opening my door a little , I became aware of a demand on his part for `` Creemsvort '' to be brought down to him that he might cut his throat on the hall-table and wash his honour , which he affirmed to be in a dirty condition , in infernal British blood . `` He is either mad or drunk , '' thought I , `` and in either case the old woman and the servants will be the better of a man 's assistance , '' so I descended straight to the hall .