midnight
As we have seen , this awkward question settled Mr. Pickwick 's business . Snubbin had held him out as an elderly but benevolent being , treating every female he met as a daughter , never dreaming of matrimony : when lo ! the whole fabric is overthrown in an instant by the luckless Winkle 's admission ! Amid the profound silence of the whole court Mr. Winkle faltered out that the trifling circumstance of suspicion was Mr. Pickwick 's being found in a lady 's sleeping apartment at midnight , which had terminated , _ he believed _ , in breaking off the projected marriage of the lady , and had led , _ he knew _ , to the whole party being forcibly carried before a magistrate . Thus was the defendant suddenly revealed as a Pecksniffian Lothario , and his pretence of philanthrophy after was shewn in its true colours . It was impossible not to associate this with the scene with Mrs. Bardell . But there was an important legal `` point '' which one might have expected would have occurred to so eminent a Chamber Counsel as Serjeant Snubbin .