eleven o'clock
In fact , at that moment she was being robed in her grave-clothes by two attendants at the Union poorhouse -- the first and last tiring-women the gentle creature had ever been honoured with . The quarter went , the half hour . A rush of recollection came upon Troy as he waited : this was the second time she had broken a serious engagement with him . In anger he vowed it should be the last , and at eleven o'clock , when he had lingered and watched the stone of the bridge till he knew every lichen upon their face and heard the chink of the ripples underneath till they oppressed him , he jumped from his seat , went to the inn for his gig , and in a bitter mood of indifference concerning the past , and recklessness about the future , drove on to Budmouth races . He reached the race-course at two o'clock , and remained either there or in the town till nine . But Fanny 's image , as it had appeared to him in the sombre shadows of that Saturday evening , returned to his mind , backed up by Bathsheba 's reproaches . He vowed he would not bet , and he kept his vow , for on leaving the town at nine o'clock in the evening he had diminished his cash only to the extent of a few shillings .