eight
o’clock
` I knew how it would be , ' said Dumps , as he turned round opposite the Mansion-house at half-past eleven o'clock on the Friday morning . ` I knew how it would be . _ I _ am concerned , and that 's enough ; ' -- and certainly the appearance of the day was sufficient to depress the spirits of a much more buoyant-hearted individual than himself . It had rained , without a moment 's cessation , since eight o'clock ; everybody that passed up Cheapside , and down Cheapside , looked wet , cold , and dirty . All sorts of forgotten and long-concealed umbrellas had been put into requisition . Cabs whisked about , with the ` fare ' as carefully boxed up behind two glazed calico curtains as any mysterious picture in any one of Mrs. Radcliffe 's castles ; omnibus horses smoked like steam-engines ; nobody thought of ` standing up ' under doorways or arches ; they were painfully convinced it was a hopeless case ; and so everybody went hastily along , jumbling and jostling , and swearing and perspiring , and slipping about , like amateur skaters behind wooden chairs on the Serpentine on a frosty Sunday . Dumps paused ; he could not think of walking , being rather smart for the christening .