midnight
If you once attempt to give me the slip , or do or say anything that can bring the bulkies upon us -- by the devil in hell ! -- if , indeed , there be hell or devil -- my knife shall become better acquainted with that throat -- so look to it ! '' And this was the father -- this the condition -- of her whose ear had for months drunk no other sound than the whispers of flattering love -- the murmurs of Passion from the lips of Poetry . They continued their journey till midnight ; they then arrived at an inn , little different from the last ; but here Alice was no longer consigned to solitude . In a long room , reeking with smoke , sat from twenty to thirty ruffians before a table on which mugs and vessels of strong potations were formidably interspersed with sabres and pistols . They received Walters and Darvil with a shout of welcome , and would have crowded somewhat unceremoniously round Alice , if her father , whose well-known desperate and brutal ferocity made him a man to be respected in such an assembly , had not said , sternly , `` Hands off , messmates , and make way by the fire for my little girl -- she is meat for your masters . '' So saying , he pushed Alice down into a huge chair in the chimney-nook , and , seating himself near her , at the end of the table , hastened to turn the conversation .