about eleven o'clock
As thus ; -- `` It is the pleasant month of May , when , as in old Chaucer 's time , the -- `` Smale foules maken melodie , That slepen alle night with open eye So priketh hem nature in their corages . Then longen folk to goe on pilgrimages , And specially from every shire 's end Of Englelond , to Exeter-hall they wend , '' till the low places of the Strand blossom with white cravats , those lilies of the valley , types of meekness and humility , at least in the pious palmer -- and why not of similar virtues in the undertaker , the concert-singer , the groom , the tavern-waiter , the croupier at the gaming-table , and Frederick Augustus Lord Scoutbush , who , white-cravated like the rest , is just getting into his cab at the door of the Never-mind-what Theatre , to spend an hour at Kensington before sauntering in to Lady M -- 's ball ? Why not , I ask , at least in the case of little Scoutbush ? For Guardsman though he be , coming from a theatre and going to a ball , there is meekness and humility in him at this moment , as well as in the average of the white-cravated gentlemen who trotted along that same pavement about eleven o'clock this forenoon . Why should not his white cravat , like theirs , be held symbolic of that fact ? However , Scoutbush belongs rather to the former than the latter of Chaucer 's categories ; for a `` smale foule '' he is , a little bird-like fellow , who maketh melodie also , and warbles like a cock-robin ; we can not liken him to any more dignified songster . Moreover , he will sleep all night with open eye ; for he will not be in bed till five to-morrow morning ; and pricked he is , and that sorely , in his courage ; for he is as much in love as his little nature can be , with the new actress , La Signora Cordifiamma , of the Never-mind-what Theatre .