11 a.m.
It happened , then , in the second week of Queen Olympe 's second unconscious reign , that an appalling Whisper floated up the Hudson , effected a landing at a point between Spuyten Duyvel Creek and Cold Spring , and sought out a stately mansion of Dutch architecture standing on the bank of the river . The Whisper straightway informed the lady dwelling in this mansion that all was not well with the last of the Van Twillers ; that he was gradually estranging himself from his peers , and wasting his nights in a play-house watching a misguided young woman turning unmaidenly somersaults on a piece of wood attached to two ropes . Mrs. Vanrensselaer Vanzandt Van Twiller came down to town by the next train to look into this little matter . She found the flower of the family taking an early breakfast , at 11 a.m. , in his cosey apartments on Thirty-fourth Street . With the least possible circumlocution she confronted him with what rumor had reported of his pursuits , and was pleased , but not too much pleased , when he gave her an exact account of his relations with Mademoiselle Zabriski , neither concealing nor qualifying anything . As a confession , it was unique , and might have been a great deal less entertaining . Two or three times in the course of the narrative , the matron had some difficulty in preserving the gravity of her countenance .