twelve o'clock
`` How did you come over ? '' inquired the host . `` In a king 's cutter , '' replied Ramsay , `` which waited for me at Portsmouth . '' This intimation produced another very low bow from Mynheer Van Krause ; as it warranted the importance of his guest ; but he then rose , and apologising for his presence being necessary below , as they were unloading a cargo of considerable value , he ordered his old porter to show Mr Ramsay into his rooms , and to take up his luggage , informing his guest that , it being now twelve o'clock , dinner would be on the table at half-past one , during which interval he begged Ramsay to amuse himself , by examining the pictures , books , etcetera , with which the room was well furnished . Then , resuming his tablets and pen , and taking the letters with him , Mynheer Van Krause made a very low bow , and left Ramsay to himself , little imagining that he had admitted an attainted traitor under his roof . Ramsay could speak Dutch fluently , for he had been quartered two years at Middleburg , when he was serving in the army . As soon as the sailors had taken up his portmanteau , and he had dismissed them with a gratuity , the extent of which made the old porter open his eyes with astonishment , and gave him a favourable opinion of his master 's new guest , he entered into conversation with the old man , who , like Eve upon another occasion , was tempted , nothing loth , for the old man loved to talk ; and in a house so busy as the syndic 's there were few who had time to chatter , and those who had , preferred other conversation to what , it must be confessed , was rather prosy .