six o'clock
-LSB- Illustration -RSB- The young men wore trousers , or pantaloons , as they mostly called them , strapped under their varnished boots . Their coats were cut like our dress-coats , if you can fancy them with a wild amplitude of collar and lapel . They wore large cravats and gaudy waistcoats , and two or three of them who had been too much in England came with shawls or rugs around their shoulders . They were a fashionable lot of people , and this was a late dinner , so they sat down at six o'clock in the great dining-room -- not the little breakfast-room -- with old Jacob Dolph at one end of the table and young Jacob Dolph at the other . It was a pleasant dinner , and the wine was good , and the company duly appreciative , although individually critical . Old Jacob Dolph had on his right an agreeable French count , just arrived in New York , who was creating a _ furor _ ; and on his left was Mr. Philip Waters , the oldest of the young men , who , being thirty-five , had a certain consideration for old age . But old Jacob Dolph was not quite at his ease .