eleven o’clock
`` No ; but you see snubbing is wholesome diet , if it is taken with a few grains of resolution , and he has come to that now ! '' For Allen had continued not only to profess to be , but to be willing to do anything to relieve his mother , and Dr. Medlicott had , with much hesitation and doubt , recommended him for what was called a secretaryship to a paralytic old gentleman , who had been , in his own estimation , eminent both in the scientific and charitable worlds , and still carried on his old habits , though quite incapable . It really was , as the Doctor honestly told Allen , very little better than being a male humble companion , for though old Sir Samuel Grose was fussy and exacting from infirmity , he was a gentleman ; but he had married late in life a vulgar , overbearing woman , who was sure to show insolent want of consideration to anyone she considered her inferior . To his surprise , Allen accepted the situation , and to his still greater surprise , endured it , walking to Kensington every day by eleven o'clock , and coming home whenever he was released , at an hour varying from three to eleven , according to my Lady 's will . He became attached to the old man , pitied him , and did his best to satisfy his many caprices and to deal with his infirmities of brain and memory ; but my Lady certainly was his bete noire , though she behaved a good deal better to him after she had seen him picked up in the park by Lady Fordham 's carriage . However , he made light of all he underwent from her , and did not break down even when it was known that though poor George Gould had died at New York , his widow showed no intention of coming home , and wrote confidently to her step-daughters of Elvira marrying her brother Gilbert . She was of age now , there was nothing to prevent her , and they seemed to be only waiting for a decent interval after her uncle 's death .