ten minutes before
six
He has passed by the various coteries just described , made his obeisance to the Ladies Prymme , received an icy epigram from Lady Frost , and a laconic sneer from Mr. Crampe , and exchanged silent bows with seven silent Slowes . He has wandered on , looking high in the air , but still looking for some one not in the air , and evidently disappointed in his search , comes to a full stop at length , takes off his hat , wipes his brow , utters a petulant `` Prr -- r -- pshaw ! '' and seeing , a little in the background , the chairless shade of a thin , emaciated , dusty tree , thither he retires , and seats himself with as little care whether there to seat himself be the right thing in the right place , as if in the honeysuckle arbour of a village inn . `` It serves me right , '' said he to himself : `` a precocious villain bursts in upon me , breaks my day , makes an appointment to meet me here , in these very walks , ten minutes before six ; decoys me with the promise of a dinner at Putney , -- room looking on the river and fried flounders . I have the credulity to yield : I derange my habits ; I leave my cool studio ; I put off my easy blouse ; I imprison my freeborn throat in a cravat invented by the Thugs ; the dog-days are at hand , and I walk rashly over scorching pavements in a black frock-coat and a brimless hat ; I annihilate 3s . 6d . in a pair of kid gloves ; I arrive at this haunt of spleen ; I run the gauntlet of Frosts , Slowes , and Prymmes : and my traitor fails me !