eleven o'clock
His lonely habitation was with a deaf , widowed cousin ; his hopes were great that he was near to having that happy home of his own of which he had dreamed on land and sea ever since he was a boy . He was young at heart , and an ardent lover , this red-faced little old captain , who walked in the Longport streets as if he were another Lord Nelson , afraid of nobody , and equal to his fortunes . To him , who had long admired her in secret , Maria Lunn 's confidence in regard to the renewing of her cedar shingles had been a golden joy . He could hardly help singing as he walked , at this proof of her confidence and esteem , and the mellowing effect of an eleven o'clock glass of refreshment put his willing tongue in daily danger of telling his hopes to a mixed but assuredly interested company . As he walked by the Lunn house , on his way to and from the harbor side , he looked at it with a feeling of relationship and love ; he admired the clean white curtains at the windows , he envied the plump tortoise-shell cat on the side doorstep ; if he saw the composed and pleasant face of Maria glancing up from her sewing , he swept his hat through the air with as gallant a bow as Longport had ever seen , and blushed with joy and pride . Maria Lunn owned to herself that she liked him best , as far as he himself was concerned ; while she invariably settled it with her judicious affections that she must never think of encouraging the captain , who , like herself , was too poor already . Put to the final test , he was found wanting ; he was no man of business , and had lost both his own patrimony and early savings in disastrous shipping enterprises , and still liked to throw down his money to any one who was willing to pick it up .