nearly three o'clock in the morning
Perhaps I have written all this in the spite and malice of a man who feels that his louis-d'or only goes half as far now as heretofore ; and attributes all his diminished enjoyments and restricted luxuries to the unceasing current of his countrymen , whom fate , and the law of imprisonment for debt , impel hither . Whether I am so far guilty or not , is not now the question ; suffice it to say , that Harry Lorrequer , for reasons best known to himself , lives abroad , where he will be most happy to see any of his old and former friends who take his quarters en route ; and in the words of a bellicose brother of the pen , but in a far different spirit , he would add , `` that any person who feels himself here alluded to , may learn the author 's address at his publishers . '' `` Now let us go back to our muttons , '' as Barney Coyle used to say in the Dublin Library formerly -- for Barney was fond of French allusions , which occasionally too he gave in their own tongue , as once describing an interview with Lord Cloncurry , in which he broke off suddenly the conference , adding , `` I told him I never could consent to such a proposition , and putting my chateau -LRB- chapeau -RRB- on my head , I left the house at once . '' It was nearly three o'clock in the morning , as accompanied by the waiter , who , like others of his tribe , had become a kind of somnambulist ex-officio , I wended my way up one flight of stairs , and down another , along a narrow corridor , down two steps , through an antechamber , and into another corridor , to No. 82 , my habitation for the night . Why I should have been so far conducted from the habitable portion of the house I had spent my evening in , I leave the learned in such matters to explain ; as for me , I have ever remarked it , while asking for a chamber in a large roomy hotel , the singular pride with which you are ushered up grand stair-cases , down passages , through corridors , and up narrow back flights , till the blue sky is seen through the sky-light , to No. 199 , `` the only spare bed-room in the house , '' while the silence and desolation of the whole establishment would seem to imply far otherwise -- the only evidence of occupation being a pair of dirty Wellingtons at the door of No. 2 . `` Well , we have arrived at last , '' said I , drawing a deep sigh , as I threw myself upon a ricketty chair , and surveyed rapidly my meagre-looking apartment . `` Yes , this is Monsieur 's chamber , '' said the waiter , with a very peculiar look , half servile , half droll .