nine o'clock at night
Then Madame Langai went to the theatre and Henrietta and the governess had to sit down at the piano in the large drawing-room till it was time to put the child to bed . But when Clementina and the domestics had had supper and there was no longer anybody else with him , the turn of the night nurse began . The duties of a night nurse are never very enviable or diverting at the best of times , yet penal servitude for life was a fate almost preferable to being the nocturnal guardian of old Demetrius Lapussa . The unhappy wretch who was burdened with this heavy charge had to sit at Mr. Lapussa 's bed from nine o'clock at night till early the following morning and read aloud to him all sorts of things the whole time . Old Demetrius was a very bad sleeper . The whole night long he scarcely slept more than an hour at a time . His eyes would only close when the droaning voice of some one reading aloud made his head dizzy , and then he would doze off for a short time .