eleven o’clock
It was perfectly useless to suggest to the father -LRB- as some of Zack 's maternal relatives did suggest to him -RRB- , that the son was originally descended from Eve , and was consequently possessed of an hereditary tendency to pluck at forbidden fruit ; and that his disposition and age made it next to a certainty , that if he were restrained from enjoying openly the amusements most attractive to him , he would probably end in enjoying them by stealth . Mr. Thorpe met all arguments of this kind by registering his usual protest against `` compounding with vice ; '' and then drew the reins of discipline tighter than ever , by way of warning off all intrusive hands from attempting to relax them for the future . Before long , the evil results predicted by the opponents of the father 's plan for preventing the son from indulging in public amusements , actually occurred . At first , Zack gratified his taste for the drama , by going to the theater whenever he felt inclined ; leaving the performances early enough to get home by eleven o'clock , and candidly acknowledging how he had occupied the evening , when the question was asked at breakfast the next morning . This frankness of confession was always rewarded by rebukes , threats , and reiterated prohibitions , administered by Mr. Thorpe with a crushing assumption of superiority to every mitigating argument , entreaty , or excuse that his son could urge , which often irritated Zack into answering defiantly , and recklessly repeating his offense . Finding that all menaces and reproofs only ended in making the lad ill-tempered and insubordinate for days together , Mr. Thorpe so far distrusted his own powers of correction as to call in the aid of his prime clerical adviser , the Reverend Aaron Yollop ; under whose ministry he sat , and whose portrait , in lithograph , hung in the best light on the dining-room wall at Baregrove Square . Mr. Yollop 's interference was at least weighty enough to produce a positive and immediate result : it drove Zack to the very last limits of human endurance .