midnight
said he at last . `` Well , we 'll see which is soonest tired . '' And he slowly drew out a fine cigar-case , picked one to his taste , lit it , took a book from the shelf convenient to his hand , then leaning back , proceeded to smoke and read as tranquilly as if he had been in his own room , in Grove-street , X -- shire , England . I knew he was capable of continuing in that attitude till midnight , if he conceived the whim , so I rose , and taking the book from his hand , I said , -- `` You did not ask for it , and you shall not have it . '' `` It is silly and dull , '' he observed , `` so I have not lost much ; '' then the spell being broken , he went on : `` I thought you lived at Pelet 's ; I went there this afternoon expecting to be starved to death by sitting in a boarding-school drawing-room , and they told me you were gone , had departed this morning ; you had left your address behind you though , which I wondered at ; it was a more practical and sensible precaution than I should have imagined you capable of . Why did you leave ? '' `` Because M. Pelet has just married the lady whom you and Mr. Brown assigned to me as my wife . ''