five in
the morning
I could not contest the point , so I ordered my Bedouins for the appointed day , exactly as I would send for a ticket-porter at home , and determined to make the best of it . The wild unlimited sands , the desolation of the Dead Sea , the rushing waters of Jordan , the outlines of the mountains of Moab ; -- those things the consular tariff could not alter , nor deprive them of the glories of their association . I had submitted , and the arrangements had been made . Joseph , my dragoman , was to come to me with the horses and an Arab groom at five in the morning , and we were to encounter our Bedouins outside the gate of St. Stephen , down the hill , where the road turns , close to the tomb of the Virgin . I was sitting alone in the public room at the hotel , filling my flask with brandy , -- for matters of primary importance I never leave to servant , dragoman , or guide , -- when the waiter entered , and said that a gentleman wished to speak with me . The gentleman had not sent in his card or name ; but any gentleman was welcome to me in my solitude , and I requested that the gentleman might enter . In appearance the gentleman certainly was a gentleman , for I thought that I had never before seen a young man whose looks were more in his favour , or whose face and gait and outward bearing seemed to betoken better breeding .