midnight
When I was about seventeen , my father sold his property -LRB- which he had become possessed of in right of my mother -RRB- , and transferred the purchase money to the security of the Funds . Shortly afterwards he died ; the bulk of his fortune became mine ; the remainder was settled upon a sister , many years older than myself , whom , in consequence of her marriage and residence in a remote part of Wales , I had never yet seen . '' `` Now , then , I was perfectly free and unfettered ; my guardian lived in Scotland , and left me entirely to the guidance of my tutor , who was both too simple and too indolent to resist my inclinations . I went to London , became acquainted with a set of most royal scamps , frequented the theatres and the taverns , the various resorts which constitute the gayeties of a blood just above the middle class , and was one of the noisiest and wildest ` blades ' that ever heard the ` chimes by midnight ' and the magistrate 's lecture for matins . I was a sort of leader among the jolly dogs I consorted with . '' `` My earlier education gave a raciness and nature to my delineations of ` life ' which delighted them . But somehow or other I grew wearied of this sort of existence .