four o'clock in the morning
As for Snap , whenever he was asked who his companion was , he would whisper in a very significant tone and manner -- `` Devilish high chap ! '' From these places they would repair , not unfrequently , to certain other scenes of nightly London life , which , I thank God ! the virtuous reader can form no notion of , though they are , strange to say , winked at , if not patronized by the police and magistracy , till the metropolis is choked with them . Thus would Snap and Titmouse pleasantly pass away their time till one , two , three , and often four o'clock in the morning ; at which hours they would , with many yawns , skulk homewards through the deserted and silent streets , their clothes redolent of tobacco smoke , their stomachs overcharged , their heads often muddled , swimming , and throbbing with their multifarious potations -- having thus spent a '' _ jolly night _ , '' and '' _ seen life _ . '' ' T was thus that Snap greatly endeared himself to Titmouse , and secretly -LRB- for he enjoined upon Titmouse , as the condition of their continuance , strict secrecy on the subject of these nocturnal adventures -RRB- stole a march upon his older competitors for the good opinion of Titmouse -- Messrs. Quirk , Tag-rag , and even the astute and experienced Gammon himself . Such doings as these required , however , as may easily be believed , some slight augmentations of the allowance made to Titmouse by Messrs. Quirk and Gammon ; and it was fortunate that Snap was in a condition , having a few hundreds at his command , to supply the necessities of Titmouse , receiving with a careless air , on the occasion of such advances , small slips of paper by way of acknowledgments ; some on stamped paper , others on unstamped paper , -- promissory notes , and I. O. U 's . Inasmuch , however , as Snap was not always possessed of a stamp on the occasion of a sudden advance , and having asked the opinion of his pleader -LRB- a sharp fellow who had been articled at the same time as himself to Messrs. Quirk and Gammon -RRB- as to whether an instrument in this form , `` I. O. U. so much -- _ with interest _ , '' would be available without a stamp , and being informed that it was a very doubtful point , Snap ingeniously met the difficulty by quietly adding to the principal what might become due in respect of interest : _ e. g. _ if £ 5 were lent , the acknowledgment would stand for £ 15 -- these little slips of paper being generally signed by Titmouse in moments of extreme exhilaration , when he never thought of scrutinizing anything that his friend Snap would lay before him .