eight o'clock
The simple breakfast which his attentive host and hostess set before him was scarcely touched . Their nicely-dressed dinner met with the same fate . He was ill , and possessed neither appetite nor spirits to eat . The good people being too civil to intrude upon him , he sat alone in his window from eight o'clock -LRB- at which hour he had arisen -RRB- until the cawing of the rooks , as they returned to the Abbey-woods , reminded him of the approach of evening . He was uneasy at the absence of Somerset , not so much on his own account , as on that of Sir Robert , whose increased danger might have occasioned this delay ; however , he hoped otherwise . Longing earnestly for a temporary sanctuary under his friend 's paternal roof , in the quiet of its peace and virtues , he trusted that the sympathy of Pembroke , the only confidant of his past sorrows , would tend to heal his recent wounds -LRB- though the nature of the most galling , he felt , must ever remain unrevealed even to him ! -RRB- and so fit him , should it be required , to yet further brave the buffets of an adverse fate .