about
ten o'clock
Young Van Bibber had never spent a Fourth of July in the city , as he had always understood it was given over to armies of small boys on that day , who sat on all the curbstones and set off fire-crackers , and that the thermometer always showed ninety degrees in the shade , and cannon boomed and bells rang from daybreak to midnight . He had refused all invitations to join any Fourth-of-July parties at the seashore or on the Sound or at Tuxedo , because he expected his people home from Europe , and had to be in New York to meet them . He was accordingly greatly annoyed when he received a telegram saying they would sail in a boat a week later . He finished his coffee at the club on the morning of the Fourth about ten o'clock , in absolute solitude , and with no one to expect and nothing to anticipate ; so he asked for a morning paper and looked up the amusements offered for the Fourth . There were plenty of excursions with brass bands , and refreshments served on board , baseball matches by the hundred , athletic meetings and picnics by the dozen , but nothing that seemed to exactly please him . The races sounded attractive , but then he always lost such a lot of money , and the crowd pushed so , and the sun and the excitement made his head ache between the eyes and spoiled his appetite for dinner . He had vowed again and again that he would not go to the races ; but as the day wore on and the solitude of the club became oppressive and the silence of the Avenue began to tell on him , he changed his mind , and made his preparations accordingly .