about eleven o'clock A.M.
What a cursed fool I was when I came here and saw those beasts , and knew them , not to turn back again , and leave them to possess their paradise ! I think I 've lost my caution and common sense under some cursed infatuation . That handsome , insolent wench , Miss Gertrude , ` twould be something to have her , and to humble her , too ; but -- but 't is not worth a week in such a neighbourhood . ' Now this soliloquy , which broke into an actual mutter every here and there , occurred at about eleven o'clock A.M. , in the little low parlour of the Brass Castle , that looked out on the wintry river . Mr. Dangerfield knew the virtues of tobacco , so he charged his pipe , and sat grim , white , and erect by the fire . It is not everyone that is ` happy thinking , ' and the knight of the silver spectacles followed out his solitary discourse , with his pipe between his lips , and saw all sorts of things through the white narcotic smoke . ` It would not do to go off and leave affairs thus ; a message might follow me , eh ?