ten o'clock
He looked carefully round before entering ; then , stepping forward , he took the candle , closed the drawer , not without difficulty , glanced round once more , and went out , locking the door behind him . `` A pack of nonsense ! '' he said , as he tossed the key on to the table before his wife . The theological discussion waxed late that night , and by ten o'clock Mrs. Nugent , under the influence of an excellent supper and a touch of stimulant , had begun to condemn her own terrors , or rather to cease to protest when her husband condemned them for her . A number of solutions had been proposed for the startling little incident , to none of which did she give an unqualified denial . It was the stooping that had done it ; there had been a rush of blood to the head that had emptied the heart and caused the sinking feeling . It was the watercress eaten in such abundance on the previous afternoon .