one o'clock
My first governess , a Puritan spinster , full of zeal , and conscientiously bent on earning her wages , by exercising my brains to their utmost capacity , undertook to introduce me to all the highly immoral personages and practices that made the Punic Wars famous . By way of making Imilco a lifelong acquaintance , she illustrated the siege of Agrigentum by a huge , hideous image of Phalaris ' ` Brazen Bull , ' drawn with chalk on the school-room blackboard . `` A wonderful beast it certainly was ; that taurus with head lowered , tail lashing the air , one hoof pawing savagely , worthy representative of all the horrors it typified , and which she explained with maddening perspicuity . That night , when papa tore himself away from the club room at one o'clock , and met mamma on the doorstep -- just coming home from a supper at Delmonico 's after an opera party -- they were ascending the stairs , when frantic cries drove from her ears the echoes of ` Traviata 's ' witching strain . Thinking only a conflagration would justify the din , papa threw up the hall sash and shouted ` fire ! ' and the police sounded the alarm , and all pandemonium broke loose . Investigation discovered me , wriggled half way down to the foot of my bed , buried under the blankets , and shrieking ` Perillus ' Bull !