It was midnight when I arrived at home.

　　She trembled, and her lip shook, and her face was paler, as she answered:

　　'It has  been put  into your  hearts, perhaps,  to save  a wretched creature for repentance.  I am  afraid to think  so; it seems  too bold.  If  any good should come of me,  I might begin  to hope; for  nothing but harm  has ever come  of my deeds yet.  I  am to be  trusted, for the  first time in  a long while,  with my miserable life, on  account of what  you have given  me to try  for.  I know  no more, and I can say no more.'

　　Again she  repressed the  tears that  had begun  to flow;  and, putting  out her trembling hand, and touching Mr. Peggotty,  as if there was some healing  virtue in him, went  away along the  desolate road.  She  had been ill,  probably for a long time.  I  observed, upon that  closer opportunity of  observation, that she was  worn  and  haggard,  and  that  her  sunken  eyes  expressed  privation and endurance.

　　We followed her at a short distance, our way lying in the same direction,  until we  came  back into  the  lighted and  populous  streets.  I  had  such implicit confidence in her declaration,  that I then put  it to Mr. Peggotty,  whether it would not seem, in the onset,  like distrusting her, to follow her  any farther. He being of the same mind, and  equally reliant on her, we suffered her  to take her own road, and  took ours, which was  towards Highgate.  He accompanied  me a good part of the way; and when we parted, with a prayer for the success of  this fresh effort, there was a new and thoughtful compassion in him that I was at  no loss to interpret.

　　It was midnight  when I arrived  at home.  I  had reached my  own gate, and  was standing listening for the deep bell of St. Paul's, the sound of which I thought had been borne  towards me among  the multitude of  striking clocks, when  I was rather surprised to see that the door of my aunt's cottage was open, and that  a faint light in the entry was shining out across the road.

　　Thinking that my aunt might have relapsed into one of her old alarms, and  might be watching the progress of some imaginary conflagration in the distance, I went to speak to her.  It was with very  great surprise that I saw a man standing  in her little garden.

　　He had  a glass  and bottle  in his  hand, and  was in  the act  of drinking.  I stopped short, among the thick foliage outside, for the moon was up now,  though obscured; and I recognized the man whom I had once supposed to be a delusion  of Mr. Dick's, and had once encountered with my aunt in the streets of the city.