eleven o'clock at night
`` My Lady 's '' late dinners were orgies where every licentiousness held sway . George was a reckless gambler , who had already jeopardized all the wealth of his family ; and , as for Kate , she was at the mercy of that amiable temperament of the human mind which always believes the worst , and as constantly draws the darkest inference from its belief . Now , Sir Stafford was very gouty , very irritable , and very unhappy to boot , about a number of matters , which , however deeply interesting to himself , should have had no concern for the world . My Lady did dine at eleven o'clock at night , and the company was assuredly not that from which a discriminating public would have selected archbishops , or even minor canons , consisting for the most part of that class of which we have already made mention in a former chapter , with now and then some passer-through of rank , or some stray diplomate on his way to or from his post . George Onslow was a large loser at play , but without having recourse to those stratagems for payment which were so generally ascribed to him . While Kate poor Kate was neither better nor worse than the reader has hitherto known her . We do not in this admission seek to conceal the fact that she was very different from what first we saw her .