ten o’clock
His lordship thought his niece not only likely to be happier , but to occupy a more distinguished position with such a man as Norman May , than with most persons of ready-made rank and fortune . The blushing and delighted Dr. May had thought himself bound to speak of his son 's designs , but he allowed that the project had been formed under great distress of mind , and when he saw it treated by so good a man , as a mere form of disappointed love , he felt himself reprieved from the hardest sacrifice that he had ever been called on to make , loved little Meta the better for restoring his son , and once more gave a free course to the aspirations that Norman 's brilliant boyhood had inspired . Richard took the same view , and the evening passed away in an argument -- as if any one had been disputing with them -- the father reasoning loud , the son enforcing it low , that it had become Norman 's duty to stay at home to take care of Meta , whose father would have been horrified at his taking her to the Antipodes . They saw mighty tasks for her fortune to effect in England , they enhanced each other 's anticipations of Norman 's career , overthrew abuses before him , heaped distinctions upon him , and had made him Prime Minister and settled his policy , before ten o'clock brought their schemes to a close . Mary gazed and believed ; Margaret lay still and gently assented ; Ethel was silent at first , and only when the fabric became extremely airy and magnificent , put in her word with a vehement dash at the present abuses , which grieved her spirit above all , and , whether vulnerable or not , Norman was to dispose of , like so many giants before Mr. Great-heart . She went upstairs , unable to analyse her sentiments . To be spared the separation would be infinite relief -- all this prosperity made her exult -- the fair girl at the Grange was the delight of her heart , and yet there was a sense of falling off ; she disliked herself for being either glad or sorry , and could have quarrelled with the lovers for perplexing her feelings so uncomfortably .