eight o'clock in the evening
It was Barnaby 's habit , when staying at Kingston , to take lodging with a very decent , respectable widow , by name Mrs. Anne Bolles , who , with three extremely agreeable and pleasant daughters , kept a very clean and well-served house for the accommodation of strangers visiting that island . One morning as he sat sipping his coffee , clad only in loose cotton drawers and a jacket of the same material , and with slippers upon his feet -LRB- as is the custom in that country , where every one endeavors to keep as cool as may be -RRB- , Miss Eliza , the youngest of the three daughters -- a brisk , handsome miss of sixteen or seventeen -- came tripping into the room and handed him a sealed letter , which she declared a stranger had just left at the door , departing incontinently so soon as he had eased himself of that commission . You may conceive of Barnaby 's astonishment when he opened the note and read the remarkable words that here follow : '' _ Mr. Barnaby True . _ `` Sir , -- Though you do n't know me , I know you , and I tell you this : if you will be at Pratt 's Ordinary on Friday next at eight o'clock in the evening , and will accompany the man who shall say to you , ' _ The Royal Sovereign is come in _ ' you shall learn of something the most to your advantage that ever befell you . Sir , keep this note and give it to him who shall address those words to you , so to certify that you are the man he seeks . Sir , this is the most important thing that can concern you , so you will please say nothing to nobody about it . '' Such was the wording of the note which was writ in as cramped and villanous handwriting as our hero ever beheld , and which , excepting his own name , was without address , and which possessed no superscription whatever .