ten o'clock
`` He wanted to take away my child , Jane . '' They took a cab , and drove from Thames-street to Soho . Clarissa had never been through the City at night before , and she thought the streets would never end . They came at last into that quieter and dingier region ; but it was past ten o'clock , and hard work to find a respectable lodging at such an hour . Happily the cabman was a kindly and compassionate spirit , and did his uttermost to help them , moving heaven and earth , in the way of policemen and small shopkeepers , until , by dint of much inquiry , he found a decent-looking house in a _ cul-de-sac _ out of Dean-street -- a little out-of-the-way quadrangle , where the houses were large and stately , and had been habitations of sweetness and light in the days when Soho was young , and Monmouth the young man of the period . To one of these houses the cabman had been directed by a good-natured cheesemonger , at a corner not far off ; and here Clarissa found a second-floor -- a gaunt-looking sitting-room , with three windows and oaken window-seats , sparsely furnished , but inexorably clean ; a bedroom adjoining -- at a rent which seemed moderate to this inexperienced wayfarer . The landlady was a widow -- is it not the normal state of landladies ?