about five o'clock in the
evening
`` Let her go , '' I am sorry to say , said I ; and indeed we relished our veal-cutlets and jam-pudding a great deal more than Mrs. Hoggarty did her dinner off plate at the Rookery . We had a very merry party to Vauxhall , Gus insisting on standing treat ; and you may be certain that my aunt , whose absence was prolonged for three weeks , was heartily welcome to remain away , for we were much merrier and more comfortable without her . My little Mary used to make my breakfast before I went to office of mornings ; and on Sundays we had a holiday , and saw the dear little children eat their boiled beef and potatoes at the Foundling , and heard the beautiful music : but , beautiful as it is , I think the children were a more beautiful sight still , and the look of their innocent happy faces was better than the best sermon . On week-days Mrs. Titmarsh would take a walk about five o'clock in the evening on the _ left _ - hand side of Lamb 's Conduit Street -LRB- as you go to Holborn -RRB- -- ay , and sometimes pursue her walk as far as Snow Hill , when two young gents from the I. W. D. Fire and Life were pretty sure to meet her ; and then how happily we all trudged off to dinner ! Once we came up as a monster of a man , with high heels and a gold-headed cane , and whiskers all over his face , was grinning under Mary 's bonnet , and chattering to her , close to Day and Martin 's Blacking Manufactory -LRB- not near such a handsome thing then as it is now -RRB- -- there was the man chattering and ogling his best , when who should come up but Gus and I ? And in the twinkling of a pegpost , as Lord Duberley says , my gentleman was seized by the collar of his coat and found himself sprawling under a stand of hackney-coaches ; where all the watermen were grinning at him . The best of it was , he left his _ head of hair and whiskers _ in my hand : but Mary said , `` Do n't be hard upon him , Samuel ; it 's only a Frenchman . ''