twelve o'clock
`` At her aunt 's ; she went on Monday . Mamma was impatient to have it over . You know her ways . '' Marian knew that this intimated that Caroline thought her mother had not been kind ; and she doubted whether to continue her inquiries ; but Caroline was too eager to tell , to wait for questions , and proceeded : -- `` There had been dissatisfaction for a long time , as I believe you may have guessed ; mamma thought Clara backward , and wanting in what Miss Morley calls ` the solid ; ' and at last , coming suddenly into the schoolroom at twelve o'clock one fine day , she found reason good , for they were very comfortably reading M. Eugene Sue . '' `` O , Caroline , impossible ! '' `` Too possible , '' said Caroline , `` though I would not believe it at first . However , they did not know what it was when they began , and were afterwards too much bewitched with the story to leave off ; and as they felt it was wrong , they read it the more constantly to get it over faster . ''