six o'clock
I 'll dine with you , and you 're as safe as a church-mouse for any thing I 'll tell them ; so , now you 'd better change your clothes , for I 'm thinking it rained last night . '' Muttering some very dubious blessings upon the learned Fin , I left the room , infinitely more chagrined and chop-fallen at the discovery I had made , than at all the misery and exposure the trick had consigned me to ; `` however , '' thought I , `` if the doctor keep his word , it all goes well ; the whole affair is between us both solely ; but , should it not be so , I may shoot half the mess before the other half would give up quizzing me . '' Revolving such pleasant thought , I betook myself to bed , and what with mulled port , and a blazing fire , became once more conscious of being a warm-blooded animal , and feel sound asleep , to dream of doctors , strait waistcoats , shaved heads , and all the pleasing associations my late companion 's narrative so readily suggested . At six o'clock I had the pleasure of presenting the worthy Doctor Finucane to our mess , taking at the same time an opportunity , unobserved by him , to inform three or four of my brother officers that my friend was really a character , abounding in native drollery , and richer in good stories than even the generality of his countrymen . Nothing could possibly go on better than the early part of the evening . Fin , true to his promise , never once alluded to what I could plainly perceive was ever uppermost in his mind , and what with his fund of humour , quaintness of expression , and quickness at reply , garnished throughout by his most mellifluous brogue , the true `` Bocca Corkana , '' kept us from one roar of laughter to another . It was just at the moment in which his spirits seemed at their highest , that I had the misfortune to call upon him for a story , which his cousin Father Malachi had alluded to on the ever-memorable evening at his house , and which I had a great desire to hear from Fin 's own lips .