midnight
Why , then , I should have thought of going to her in the great strait in which I found myself on that day , I can not say . I knew she had money in her house ; this I had unhappily been made acquainted with in an accidental way , and I knew she was of kindly disposition and quite capable of doing a very unselfish act . Still , this would not seem to be reason enough for me to intrude upon her late at night with a plea for a large loan of money , had I not been in a desperate condition of mind , which made any attempt seem reasonable that promised relief from the unendurable burden of a pressing and disreputable debt . I was obliged to have money , a great deal of money , and I had to have it at once ; and while I know that this will not serve to lighten the suspicion I have brought upon myself by my late admissions , it is the only explanation I can give you for leaving the ball at my father 's house and hurrying down secretly and alone into town to the little cottage where , as I had been told early in the evening , a small entertainment was being given , which would insure its being open even at so late an hour as midnight . Miss Page , who will , I am sure , pardon the introduction of her name into this narrative , has taken pains to declare to you that in the expedition she herself made into town that evening , she followed some person 's steps down-hill . This is very likely true , and those steps were probably mine , for after leaving the house by the garden door , I came directly down the main road to the corner of the lane running past Mrs. Webb 's cottage . Having already seen from the hillside the light burning in her upper windows , I felt encouraged to proceed , and so hastened on till I came to the gate on High Street .