about
noon
When he woke the next morning , or rather late in the next day , after his night 's work , he was no longer able to tell himself that the world was all right with him . Who does not know that sudden thoughtfulness at waking , that first matutinal retrospection , and pro-spection , into things as they have been and are to be ; and the lowness of heart , the blankness of hope which follows the first remembrance of some folly lately done , some word ill-spoken , some money misspent , -- or perhaps a cigar too much , or a glass of brandy and soda-water which he should have left untasted ? And when things have gone well , how the waker comforts himself among the bedclothes as he claims for himself to be whole all over , teres atque rotundus , -- so to have managed his little affairs that he has to fear no harm , and to blush inwardly at no error ! Mr. Broune , the way of whose life took him among many perils , who in the course of his work had to steer his bark among many rocks , was in the habit of thus auditing his daily account as he shook off sleep about noon , -- for such was his lot , that he seldom was in bed before four or five in the morning . On this Wednesday he found that he could not balance his sheet comfortably . He had taken a very great step and he feared that he had not taken it with wisdom . As he drank the cup of tea with which his servant supplied him while he was yet in bed , he could not say of himself , teres atque rotundus , as he was wont to do when things were well with him .