about ten o'clock
In about twenty minutes he returned , accompanied by a highly intelligent - looking individual , dressed in blue and black , with a particularly white cravat , and without a hat on his head : this individual , whom I should have mistaken for a gentleman but for the intelligence depicted in his face , he introduced to me as the master of the inn . The master of the inn shook me warmly by the hand , told me that he was happy to see me in his house , and thanked me in the handsomest terms for the kindness I had shown to his servant in the affair of the thunderstorm . Then saying that he was informed I was out of employ , he assured me that he should be most happy to engage me to keep his hay and corn account , and as general superintendent of the yard , and that with respect to the horse , which he was told I had , he begged to inform me that I was perfectly at liberty to keep it at the inn upon the very best , until I could find a purchaser , -- that with regard to wages -- but he had no sooner mentioned wages than I cut him short , saying , that provided I stayed I should be most happy to serve him for bed and board , and requested that he would allow me until the next morning to consider of his offer ; he willingly consented to my request , and , begging that I would call for anything I pleased , left me alone with the postillion . I passed that night until about ten o'clock with the postillion , when he left me , having to drive a family about ten miles across the country ; before his departure , however , I told him that I had determined to accept the offer of his governor , as he called him . At the bottom of my heart I was most happy that an offer had been made , which secured to myself and the animal a comfortable retreat at a moment when I knew not whither in the world to take myself and him . An Inn of Times gone by -- A First-rate Publican -- Hay and Corn -- Old-fashioned Ostler -- Highwaymen -- Mounted Police -- Grooming . The inn , of which I had become an inhabitant , was a place of infinite life and bustle .