one o’clock
On the morrow , however , at an early hour , he found occasion to give an answer more in consonance with the facts . What was the matter had continued to be so all the previous evening , the first hours of which , after dinner , in his room , he had devoted to the copious composition of a letter . He had quitted Waymarsh for this purpose , leaving him to his own resources with less ceremony than their wont , but finally coming down again with his letter unconcluded and going forth into the streets without enquiry for his comrade . He had taken a long vague walk , and one o'clock had struck before his return and his re-ascent to his room by the aid of the glimmering candle-end left for him on the shelf outside the porter 's lodge . He had possessed himself , on closing his door , of the numerous loose sheets of his unfinished composition , and then , without reading them over , had torn them into small pieces . He had thereupon slept -- as if it had been in some measure thanks to that sacrifice -- the sleep of the just , and had prolonged his rest considerably beyond his custom . Thus it was that when , between nine and ten , the tap of the knob of a walking-stick sounded on his door , he had not yet made himself altogether presentable .