one o'clock
`` And , after all , '' thought he , `` I 'm only where I was when she comes back ; at least , if that foolish fellow goes on with his imaginating fancy . She 'll have to come back some time , and if he chooses to imagine himself constant , there 's still the devil to pay . '' Presently he began to hum the air out of the `` Beggar 's Opera '' -- I wonder any man alive Should ever rear a daughter . Of course the news of Miss Gibson 's approaching departure had spread through the household before the one o'clock dinner-time came ; and Mr. Coxe 's dismal countenance was a source of much inward irritation to Mr. Gibson , who kept giving the youth sharp glances of savage reproof for his melancholy face , and want of appetite ; which he trotted out , with a good deal of sad ostentation ; all of which was lost upon Molly , who was too full of her own personal concerns to have any thought or observation to spare from them , excepting once or twice when she thought of the many days that must pass over before she should again sit down to dinner with her father . When she named this to him after the meal was over , and they were sitting together in the drawing-room , waiting for the sound of the wheels of the Hamley carriage , he laughed , and said , -- `` I 'm coming over to-morrow to see Mrs. Hamley ; and I daresay I shall dine at their lunch ; so you wo n't have to wait long before you 've the treat of seeing the wild beast feed . '' Then they heard the approaching carriage . `` Oh , papa , '' said Molly , catching at his hand , `` I do so wish I was n't going , now that the time is come . ''