ten
o'clock at night in June
All previous Dubbins had lived over their warehouses and offices ; but her ladyship had brought Thomas Dubbin from Mark Lane to my Lord Bedford 's Piazza in the Convent Garden , where he endured the tedium of existence in a fine new house in which he was afraid of his fine new servants , and never had anything to eat that he liked , his gastronomic taste being for dishes the very names of which were intolerable to persons of quality . This evening Mr. Dubbin had been incorrigible , and had insisted on intruding his clumsy person upon Lady Fareham 's party , arguing with a dull persistence that his name was on her ladyship 's billet of invitation . `` Your name is on a great many invitations only because it is my misfortune to be called by it , '' his wife told him . `` To sit on a barge after ten o'clock at night in June -- the coarsest month in summer -- is to court lumbago ; and all I hope is ye 'll not be punished by a worse attack than common . '' Mr. Dubbin had refused to be discouraged , even by this churlishness from his lady , and appeared in attendance upon her , wearing a magnificent birthday suit of crimson velvet and green brocade , which he meant to present to his favourite actor at the Duke 's Theatre , after he had exhibited himself in it half a dozen times at Whitehall , for the benefit of the great world , and at the Mulberry Garden for the admiration of the _ bona-robas _ . He was a fat , double-chinned little man , the essence of good nature , and perfectly unconscious of being an offence to fine people . Although not a wit himself , Mr. Dubbin was occasionally the cause of wit in others , if the practice of bubbling an innocent rustic or citizen can be called wit .