about twelve o'clock
`` I always said the old buffer would marry , '' he muttered , after about half an hour 's revery . Alicia and my lady , the stepmother , will go at it hammer and tongs . I hope they wo n't quarrel in the hunting season , or say unpleasant things to each other at the dinner-table ; rows always upset a man 's digestion . At about twelve o'clock on the morning following that night upon which the events recorded in my last chapter had taken place , the baronet 's nephew strolled out of the Temple , Blackfriarsward , on his way to the city . He had in an evil hour obliged some necessitous friend by putting the ancient name of Audley across a bill of accommodation , which bill not having been provided for by the drawer , Robert was called upon to pay . For this purpose he sauntered up Ludgate Hill , with his blue necktie fluttering in the hot August air , and thence to a refreshingly cool banking-house in a shady court out of St. Paul 's churchyard , where he made arrangements for selling out a couple of hundred pounds ' worth of consols . He had transacted this business , and was loitering at the corner of the court , waiting for a chance hansom to convey him back to the Temple , when he was almost knocked down by a man of about his own age , who dashed headlong into the narrow opening .