About one o'clock at night
In a more miserably forlorn place he could not have found himself : the room smelt of fish , and sawdust , and stale tobacco smoke , with a slight taint of escaped gas ; everything was rough and dirty , and disreputable ; the cloth which they put before him was abominable ; the knives and forks were bruised , and hacked , and filthy ; and everything was impregnated with fish . He had one comfort , however : he was quite alone ; there was no one there to look on his dismay ; nor was it probable that anyone would come to do so . It was a London supper-house . About one o'clock at night the place would be lively enough , but at the present time his seclusion was as deep as it had been in the abbey . In about half an hour the untidy girl , not yet dressed for her evening labours , brought him his chop and potatoes , and Mr Harding begged for a pint of sherry . He was impressed with an idea , which was generally prevalent a few years since , and is not yet wholly removed from the minds of men , that to order a dinner at any kind of inn , without also ordering a pint of wine for the benefit of the landlord , was a kind of fraud , -- not punishable , indeed , by law , but not the less abominable on that account . Mr Harding remembered his coming poverty , and would willingly have saved his half-crown , but he thought he had no alternative ; and he was soon put in possession of some horrid mixture procured from the neighbouring public-house .