eleven o'clock
`` Are they here ? '' he inquired , as Mr. Amminadab entered . `` Yes , sir , all three ; and the coach is at the door , too . Nicky Crowbar 's to be up at three , sir '' -- `` I see -- I know -- I 'm ready , '' replied Mr. Quirk , who was presently seated in the coach with three gentlemen , to whom he minutely explained the person of Mr. Nicky Crowbar , and the place at which it was quite certain that Mr. Crowbar could _ not _ have been at half-past eleven o'clock on Tuesday night the 9th of July , seeing that it did so happen that at that precise time he was elsewhere , in company with these very three gentlemen -- to wit , at Chelsea , and _ not at Clapham _ ! In short , this was a first-rate ALIBI . Though Mr. Gammon thus sympathized with one of the gentle beings who had been `` rifled of all their sweetness , '' I grieve to say that the other , Miss Tag-rag , never occupied his thoughts for one moment . He neither knew nor cared whether or not she was apprised of the destruction of all _ her _ fond hopes , by the paragraph which had appeared in the _ Aurora _ .