five o'clock
By the military and naval people she was deemed the best `` fun '' going ; her pretension , her affectation , her shrewdness , and her simplicity , her religious homage to fashion , her unmerciful tyranny towards what she thought vulgarity , made her the subject of many a joke and much amusement . The other classes , the more regular _ habitués _ of the `` house , '' thought she was a princess in disguise ; they revered her opinions as oracles , and only wondered how the court-end could spare one so evidently formed to be the glass of fashion . If I have been too prolix in my sketch , kind reader , attribute it to the true cause , -- my anxiety to serve those who are good enough to place themselves under my guidance . Mrs. D. still lives ; the establishment still survives ; at five o'clock each day -- ay , this very day , I have no doubt -- her table is crowded by `` the rank and fashion '' of the Quebec world ; and the chances are , if you yourself , worthy reader , should visit that city , that you may be glad to give your blank days to the fare of Madam Davis . It was ten o'clock in the forenoon as I arrived at her door , and sent in Captain Pike 's letter , announcing my arrival . I found Mrs. D. in what she called her own room , -- a little den of about eleven feet square , shelved all round , and showing an array of jars and preserve-pots that was most imposing , -- the offerings of skippers from the West India Islands and Madeira , who paid a kind of black-mail in preserved ginger , guavas , yams , pepper-pots , chili , and potted crabs that would have given liver complaints to half the Province . Mrs. D. was standing on a step-ladder , arranging her treasures by the aid of a negro boy of about twelve years old , as I entered ; and not feeling that I was of consequence sufficient to require a more formal audience , she took a steady and patient observation of me , and then resumed her labors .