eight o'clock
Some of the clubs contain more than a thousand members . The houses are fitted up in the most luxurious manner , with reading rooms , libraries , dining rooms , apartments for conversation , and for all sorts of games , and every thing else requisite to make them agreeable places of resort for the members . The annual expenditure in many of them is from thirty to fifty thousand dollars . It was after eight o'clock when Mr. George and Rollo went out ; and as soon as they came into the street at Trafalgar Square , they saw all around them the indications of an extraordinary and general excitement . The streets were full of people ; and in every direction , and at different distances from them , they could see lights gleaming in the air , over the roofs of the houses , or shining brightly upon the heads of the crowd in the street below , in some open space , or at some prominent and conspicuous corner . The current seemed to be setting to the west , towards the region of the club houses and palaces . The lights were more brilliant , too , in that direction .