two o’clock in the
morning
She never will forget his fury that night , Never ! To this account Felix listens with a solemn face , occasionally looking at you to see how it affects you , and when his mother has made an end of it , adds that he looked at every coachman he met for three weeks afterwards , in hopes that he might see the scoundrel ; whereupon Mrs. Nixon , with an exclamation of terror , requests to know what he would have done to him if he _ had _ seen him , at which Felix smiling darkly and clenching his right fist , she exclaims , ` Goodness gracious ! ' with a distracted air , and insists upon extorting a promise that he never will on any account do anything so rash , which her dutiful son -- it being something more than three years since the offence was committed -- reluctantly concedes , and his mother , shaking her head prophetically , fears with a sigh that his spirit will lead him into something violent yet . The discourse then , by an easy transition , turns upon the spirit which glows within the bosom of Felix , upon which point Felix himself becomes eloquent , and relates a thrilling anecdote of the time when he used to sit up till two o'clock in the morning reading French , and how his mother used to say , ` Felix , you will make yourself ill , I know you will ; ' and how _ he _ used to say , ` Mother , I do n't care -- I will do it ; ' and how at last his mother privately procured a doctor to come and see him , who declared , the moment he felt his pulse , that if he had gone on reading one night more -- only one night more -- he must have put a blister on each temple , and another between his shoulders ; and who , as it was , sat down upon the instant , and writing a prescription for a blue pill , said it must be taken immediately , or he would n't answer for the consequences . The recital of these and many other moving perils of the like nature , constantly harrows up the feelings of Mr. Nixon 's friends . Mrs. Nixon has a tolerably extensive circle of female acquaintance , being a good-humoured , talkative , bustling little body , and to the unmarried girls among them she is constantly vaunting the virtues of her son , hinting that she will be a very happy person who wins him , but that they must mind their P 's and Q 's , for he is very particular , and terribly severe upon young ladies . At this last caution the young ladies resident in the same row , who happen to be spending the evening there , put their pocket-handkerchiefs before their mouths , and are troubled with a short cough ; just then Felix knocks at the door , and his mother drawing the tea-table nearer the fire , calls out to him as he takes off his boots in the back parlour that he need n't mind coming in in his slippers , for there are only the two Miss Greys and Miss Thompson , and she is quite sure they will excuse _ him _ , and nodding to the two Miss Greys , she adds , in a whisper , that Julia Thompson is a great favourite with Felix , at which intelligence the short cough comes again , and Miss Thompson in particular is greatly troubled with it , till Felix coming in , very faint for want of his tea , changes the subject of discourse , and enables her to laugh out boldly and tell Amelia Grey not to be so foolish .