seven o'clock
These Callender ladies , prompted by him and with a sweet modesty of quietness , had just armed a new field battery with its six splendid brass guns , and it was around these three Callenders that his ponderings now hung ; especially around Anna and in reference to his much overprized property and two nephews : Adolphe Irby , for whom he had obtained the command of this battery , which he was to see him drill this afternoon , and Hilary Kincaid , who had himself cast the guns and who was to help the senior cousin conduct these evolutions . The lone reader 's glance loitered down a long row of slim paragraphs , each beginning with the same wee picture of a steamboat whether it proclaimed the _ Grand Duke _ or the _ Louis d'Or _ , the _ Ingomar _ bound for the `` Lower Coast , '' or the _ Natchez _ for `` Vicksburg and the Bends . '' Shifting the page , he read of the Swiss Bell-Ringers as back again `` after a six years ' absence , '' and at the next item really knew what he read . It was of John Owens ' appearance , every night , as _ Caleb Plummer _ in `` Dot , '' `` performance to begin at seven o'clock . '' Was it there Adolphe would this evening take his party , of which the dazzling Flora would be one and Anna , he hoped , another ? He had proposed this party to Adolphe , agreeing to bear its whole cost if the nephew would manage to include in it Anna and Hilary . And Irby had duly reported complete success and drawn on him , but the old soldier still told his doubts to the newspaper .