a quarter to eight
`` Poor puss ! '' he exclaimed , stroking her fondly on the back ; and , after a while , the glossy creature sidled away , as it were reluctantly , from his caressing hand , and lay comfortably coiled up on the hearth-rug , as before . Again he walked to and fro , absorbed in melancholy reflection for some time ; from which he was roused , about five , by Mrs. Brown bringing in the spare dinner -- which , having barely tasted , he soon dismissed , telling her that he felt a strange shooting pain in his head , and that his eyes seemed sometimes covered by a mist : but that he doubted not his being well enough to keep his appointment at the club -- as she knew had been his habit for years . He requested her to have his dressing-room prepared by a quarter to eight , and a coach fetched by eight o'clock precisely . As soon as she had withdrawn , he sat down and wrote the following letter to the oldest and most devoted personal friend he had in the world : `` MY DEAR -- . I entreat you , by our long unbroken friendship , to keep the enclosed letter by you , for a fortnight ; and then , with your own hand , and alone , deliver it to the individual to whom it is addressed . Burn _ this _ note -- I mean the one which I am at this instant writing to you -- the instant you shall have read it ; and take care that no eye sees the enclosed but _ hers _ -- or all my efforts to secure a _ little _ provision for her will be frustrated .