about nine o'clock
But the more she meditated the more she felt convinced , that , notwithstanding the obvious objections to it , this was the safest course she could pursue : so having once made up her mind upon the subject , she set about it without farther delay , and , with the straightforward frankness and sincerity of her character , produced the following epistle : -- `` Dear Mr. Mowbray , `` Your last letter to Helen , giving so very agreeable an account of the style and manner of your _ Little-go _ , makes it an ungracious task to interrupt your studies -- and yet that is what I am bent upon doing . You will be rather puzzled , I suspect , at finding me assuming the rights and privileges of a correspondent , and moreover of an adviser , or rather a dictator : but so it is -- and you must not blame me till you are quite sure you know all my reasons for it . `` Mrs. Mowbray is gone to London , accompanied by Helen , for the purpose of proving -LRB- I think it is called -RRB- your father 's will ; a business in which Sir Gilbert Harrington has , most unkindly for all of you , refused to join her . This journey was so suddenly decided upon , that dear Helen had no time to write to you about it : she knew not she was to go till about nine o'clock the evening preceding . `` The Vicar of Wrexhill was probably acquainted with the intended movement earlier ; for no day passes , or has passed for some weeks , without his holding a private consultation with your mother . `` Oh ! that vicar , Charles !