a quarter past nine o’clock
Manston found that nothing could be done towards searching them at that hour of the night . He turned homeward again , in the company of the rector , who had considerately persuaded him to retire from the scene for a while , and promised that as soon as a man could live amid the embers of the Three Tranters Inn , they should be carefully searched for the remains of his unfortunate wife . Manston then went indoors , to wait for morning . The search began at dawn , but a quarter past nine o'clock came without bringing any result . Manston ate a little breakfast , and crossed the hollow of the park which intervened between the old and modern manor-houses , to ask for an interview with Miss Aldclyffe . He met her midway . She was about to pay him a visit of condolence , and to place every man on the estate at his disposal , that the search for any relic of his dead and destroyed wife might not be delayed an instant .