seven o'clock
The ceiling was whitewashed , and decorated in the middle with a plaster centre-piece , from which hung a massive chandelier sparkling with prismatic rays from a hundred crystal pendants . There was a handsome mantel , set with terra-cotta tiles , on which fauns and satyrs , nymphs and dryads , disported themselves in idyllic abandon . The furniture was old , and in keeping with the room . At seven o'clock a carriage drove up , from which alighted an elderly gentleman , with white hair and mustache , and bowed somewhat with years . Short of breath and painfully weak in the legs , he was assisted from the carriage by a colored man , apparently about forty years old , to whom short side-whiskers and spectacles imparted an air of sobriety . This attendant gave his arm respectfully to the old gentleman , who leaned upon it heavily , but with as little appearance of dependence as possible . The servant , assuming a similar unconsciousness of the weight resting upon his arm , assisted the old gentleman carefully up the steps .