about half past three
Then there were songs sung in all the rooms at once -- speeches made , half-a-dozen at the same time ; in short , never before had such doings been witnessed , or such uproar heard , within the decorous , dignified , and venerable precincts of Yatton . Scenes ensued which really baffle description . Mr. Titmouse , of course , drank prodigiously , although Mr. Gammon never left his side , and checked him fifty times when he was about to fill his glass . The excitement thus produced by wine will , I trust , in some measure mitigate the reader 's indignation at hearing of a little incident which occurred , in which Titmouse was concerned , and which , about half past three or four o'clock in the morning , served to bring that brilliant entertainment to a somewhat abrupt and rather unpleasant termination . Scarcely knowing where he was , or what he was about , I am sorry to say , that while standing , as well as he could , beside Miss Wildfire , to dance for the fifth time with her -- a plump , fair-faced , good-natured girl of about nineteen or twenty -- he suddenly threw his arms around her , and imprinted half-a-dozen kisses on her forehead , lips , cheek , and neck , before she could recover from the confusion into which this monstrous outrage had thrown her . Her faint shriek reached her father 's ears , while he was , in a distant part of the room , persecuting Miss Quirk with drunken and profligate impertinence . Hastily approaching the quarter whence his daughter 's voice had issued , he beheld her just extricated from the insolent embrace of the half-unconscious Titmouse , and greatly agitated .