ten o'clock
`` Circumstances alter cases , '' replied the latter , crushing out all feeling from her voice and letting it fall into a dead level of indifference . `` But circumstances do n't alter facts , my dear . There are the hard facts of restrictions and conditions , made by a man , and applied to his equal , a woman . Does she say to him , You ca n't go to your club unless you return alone in your carriage , and leave the club-house precisely at ten o'clock ? Oh no . He would laugh in her face , or , perhaps , consult the family physician touching her sanity . '' This mode of putting the question rather bewildered the mind of our young wife , and she dropped her eyes from those of Mrs. Talbot and sat looking upon the floor in silence .