seven in the
morning
I mean that if he were presented to an Empress he would not be impressed , nor if he chatted with a bar-maid would he be familiar . He would just look at each of them with his grave blue eyes and think only of what she was saying , and not at all of what sort of an impression he was making , or what she thought of him . Aiken helped me a lot by making me try not to be like Aiken ; Lowell helped me by making me wish to be like Lowell . We had a very merry breakfast , and the fact that it was seven in the morning did not in the least interfere with our drinking each other 's health in a quart of champagne . Nearly all of our officers came in while we were at breakfast to learn if I were still alive , and Lowell gave them most marvellous accounts of the affair , sometimes representing me as an idiot and sometimes as an heroic martyr . They all asked him if he thought Fiske had sufficient influence at Washington to cause the Government to give him the use of the Raleigh against us , but he would only laugh and shake his head . Later , to Laguerre , he talked earnestly on the same subject , and much to the point .