eight o’clock
Be very tender , sir , if you please . You ca n't make it too strong , sir ! ' The letter being duly signed , sealed , and delivered , was handed to Mark Tapley , for immediate conveyance if possible . And he succeeded so well in his embassy as to be enabled to return that same night , just as the house was closing , with the welcome intelligence that he had sent it upstairs to the young lady , enclosed in a small manuscript of his own , purporting to contain his further petition to be engaged in Mr Chuzzlewit 's service ; and that she had herself come down and told him , in great haste and agitation , that she would meet the gentleman at eight o'clock to-morrow morning in St. James 's Park . It was then agreed between the new master and the new man , that Mark should be in waiting near the hotel in good time , to escort the young lady to the place of appointment ; and when they had parted for the night with this understanding , Martin took up his pen again ; and before he went to bed wrote another letter , whereof more will be seen presently . He was up before daybreak , and came upon the Park with the morning , which was clad in the least engaging of the three hundred and sixty-five dresses in the wardrobe of the year . It was raw , damp , dark , and dismal ; the clouds were as muddy as the ground ; and the short perspective of every street and avenue was closed up by the mist as by a filthy curtain .