six o'clock in the morning
Within a fortnight after the night on which Black Milsom had been invited to supper in the servants ' - hall , Captain Copplestone quitted Raynham Castle for an indefinite period , for the first time since Lady Eversleigh 's departure . He was seated at breakfast in the pretty sitting-room in the south wing , which he occupied in common with the heiress and her governess , when a letter was brought to him by one of the castle servants . `` Ben Simmons has just brought this up from the ` Hen and Chickens , ' sir , '' said the man . `` It came by the mail-coach that passes through Raynham at six o'clock in the morning . '' Captain Copplestone gazed at the superscription of the letter with considerable surprise . The handwriting was that of Lady Eversleigh , and the letter was marked _ Immediate and important _ . In those days there was no electric telegraph ; and a letter conveyed thus had pretty much the same effect upon the captain 's mind that a telegram would now-a-days exercise .