two o’clock
` No , sweet , ' returned the charming mother , accepting Dumps 's proffered arm ; and the little party entered the hackney-coach that was to take them to the church ; Dumps amusing Mrs. Kitterbell by expatiating largely on the danger of measles , thrush , teeth-cutting , and other interesting diseases to which children are subject . The ceremony -LRB- which occupied about five minutes -RRB- passed off without anything particular occurring . The clergyman had to dine some distance from town , and had two churchings , three christenings , and a funeral to perform in something less than an hour . The godfathers and godmother , therefore , promised to renounce the devil and all his works -- ` and all that sort of thing ' -- as little Kitterbell said -- ` in less than no time ; ' and with the exception of Dumps nearly letting the child fall into the font when he handed it to the clergyman , the whole affair went off in the usual business-like and matter-of-course manner , and Dumps re-entered the Bank-gates at two o'clock with a heavy heart , and the painful conviction that he was regularly booked for an evening party . Evening came -- and so did Dumps 's pumps , black silk stockings , and white cravat which he had ordered to be forwarded , per boy , from Pentonville . The depressed godfather dressed himself at a friend 's counting-house , from whence , with his spirits fifty degrees below proof , he sallied forth -- as the weather had cleared up , and the evening was tolerably fine -- to walk to Great Russell-street . Slowly he paced up Cheapside , Newgate-street , down Snow-hill , and up Holborn ditto , looking as grim as the figure-head of a man-of-war , and finding out fresh causes of misery at every step .