one
o'clock
He preferred his milk condensed in this way ; he got very little of it in the fluid form , and did not think very highly of it when he did . He knew what was good , Aunt Blin said . He understood conversation ; especially moral lectures and admonitions ; Miss Bree had talked to him precisely as if he had a soul , for five years . He knew when she was coming back at one o'clock to dinner , or at nine in the evening , by the ringing of the bells . After she had told him so , he would be sitting at the door , watching for its opening , from the instant of their first sound until she came up-stairs . When Aunt Blin thought over all this and told it to Bel , on their way down in the cars , she almost persuaded her niece and quite convinced herself , that Bartholomew could be dealt with on principles of honor and confidence . They would not attempt to keep the cage out of his reach ; that would be almost to keep it out of their own .