nine o'clock
Eagerly did she listen to all of these stories , which Frederick took care should be very well spiced , as it was at once his amusement to frighten his mother and spite his sister ; for Gertrude in private implored him not to continue to alarm their mother with his frightful tales , and also begged him for his own sake to relinquish his evil habits of intemperance , which at such a time as this might lead to fatal results . The good-for-nothing youth only mocked at her , and derided his father when he gave him the same warning . He had become perfectly unmanageable and reckless , and nothing that he heard or saw about him produced any impression . Although taverns and ale houses were closely watched , and ordered to close at nine o'clock , and the gatherings of idle and profligate youths of whatever condition of life sternly reprobated and forbidden by the authorities , yet these worthies found means of evading or defying the regulations , and their revels continued as before , so that Frederick was seldom thoroughly sober , and more reckless and careless even than of old . In vain his father strove to bring him to a better mind ; in vain he warned him of the peril of his ways and the danger to his health of such constant excesses . Frederick only laughed insolently ; whereupon the Master Builder , who had but just come from his neighbour 's house , and was struck afresh with the contrast presented by the two homes , asked him if he knew how Reuben Harmer was passing his time , and made a few bitter comparisons between his son and those of his neighbour . This was perhaps unfortunate , for Frederick , like most men of his type , was both vain and spiteful .